IT HAS been great end of the season for the male bowlers at Loddon Vale as they won their first ever major cup, the Leonard Denny Memorial Trophy, held at Cambridge Park, Twickenham.

This event, which comprises two rinks of four players, is played between around 60 clubs in the South East of England during the winter season and is normally contested amongst the bigger clubs Whiteknights, Desborough, Wey Valley and Cyphers at the later stages.

However, this season Loddon Vale had disposed of Whiteknights in the first round, then followed with wins over Oxford City and County, Foxhills and Dolphin leaving them to face defending champions Cyphers(Kent) in the semi-final.

The rink of Geraint Jones, Alan Syckelmoore, Ashley Nethercliffe and Gary Lovett play a very tight game against a rink skipped by England international Tom Bishop but the rink of Duncan Rogers, Jeff White, Steve Shaw and Trevor Morgan got off to a quick start and held their advantage to give Loddon Vale a comfortable victory with a few ends to spare.

They then faced Bounds Green (Enfield) in the final who had beaten Wey Valley in the morning.

The game took a similar course to the morning whereby Gary Lovett’s rink had a titanic tussle but just lost to their opponents, whereas, Trevor Morgan’s rink made the best of a tricky rink to romped to an early lead which they extended further as their opponents chased the game giving Loddon Vale the victory, the trophy and the £1,000 winner’s cheque.

Team captain Duncan Rogers said: “It’s a great achievement for the club who have no internationals or superstar players to call upon and that the success was down to a great team effort not only of the players who took part in the finals but also those who had helped getting the club there and a few slices of luck along the way.”