THERE was to be no fairytale finish for final first-timers King & Queen as their bid to be crowned county best fell short on Saturday.

The Warrington outfit, making its debut in the Cheshire County Bowling Association’s Brunner Cup final, lost narrowly to favourites Wharton Cons at Budenberg Bowling Club.

Brendan Brady’s men went down by 14 chalks on aggregate.

“The scoreline does not do our opponents justice,” said Glynn Cookson, captain of the winning team.

“No wonder they’re the best team in Warrington, they pushed us all the way.”

King played catch-up from the start at the Altrincham venue as they trailed by seven chalks after the first four head-to-heads, a gap exacerbated by a heavy 21-7 reverse for Billy Stewart against man of the match James Harrop.

However Damian Morrison’s courageous recovery from 12-5 and 16-10 adrift to beat Graham Donnelly to 18 made Stewart’s slip less damaging.

Brady edged the contest’s closest encounter, rescuing a single-chalk success against Martin Kettle after letting slip an 18-12 advantage as he lost six successive ends.

Steve Jackson could claim only five points off Mark Burdon though in a middle four blocks that left King’s final quartet too much to do.

Victories for Steve Brown and Larry Wells left the debutants with the same number of winning cards on the scoresheet, but those two single-figure defeats cost them a chance to become the first team from the town in more than two decades to win Cheshire’s most prestigious team knockout competition.

Cheshire County Bowling Association
Brunner Cup final
Saturday, August 11
Wharton Cons 212 King & Queen 196
Glynn Cookson 21 John Brown 17
Graham Donnelly 18 Damian Morrison 21
James Harrop 21 Billy Stewart 07
Danny Nixon 13 Ray Goodhand 21
Thomas Vickers 21 Stephen Lea 12
Martin Kettle 20 Brendan Brady 21
Mark Burdon 21 Steve Jackson 05
Shaun Yearsley 15 Danny Watson 21
Simon Cookson 21 Andrew Wightman 17
Alan Vickers 05 Steve Brown 21
Steve Curbishley 21 John Taylor 12