More than 300 spectators enjoyed the action at Surrey County Bowling Association’s men’s finals day at Croydon last Thursday, writes Mike Haigh.

Weybridge’s Chris Young beat Cranleigh RBL’s Andy Gladwell 21-19 to win a thrilling open singles title.

The scores were level at 19-19 before Chris drew the two shots he required to clinch the title for the third time.

Gladwell, along with partner Andy Bullen, was also beaten in a thrilling end to the pairs by Croydon’s Alistair Howick and Graham Vigor. This time it was Howick who secured victory with the final bowl.

Howick and Vigor helped the host club to a second success when they teamed up with Ted Barlow and Andy Hawes to pip South London in the fours.

Daniel Morris became the fourth Cheam bowler to win the U25 singles in the last 15 years.

Ottershaw’s Graeme Skinner reversed a large deficit to beat Colliers Wood’s Derek Anderson in the Champion of Champion Singles.

FINALS Fours: South London: Alkesh Vadher, Mark Porter, Sean O’Connell, Lee Dickson 17 Croydon: Ted Barlow, Andy Hawes, Alistair Howick, Graham Vigor. Triples: Egham Bob Bass, Gary Little, Ian Jenkins 20 North Sheen: Ricky Lidington, Ian Acus, Darren King 12. Singles: Chris Young (Weybridge) 21 Andy Gladwell (Cranleigh) 19. U25 singles: Daniel Morris (Cheam) 21 Matthew White (Woodbridge Hill) 13 . Unbadged singles: David Emery (Bookham) 14 Neil Callingham (Mayford Hall) 21. Champion of Champions: Derek Anderson (Colliers Wood) 17 Graham Skinner (Ottershaw) 21. Pairs: Andy Gladwell & Andy Bullen (Cranleigh) 15 Graham Vigor & Alistair Howick (Croydon) 17. Secretaries Championship: Ashley Young (Streatham Park) 21 Doug Long (Chessington) 8.

Surrey U25 went down 82-69 to Middlesex, who had already been crowned Junior Home Counties champions, at Parsons Green last Sunday.

Middleesex took 10 points from their match to Surrey’s four. Surrey will finish second unless Sussex can manage at least eight points from their final match, which would represent an excellent season for team manager Allen Kellaway.

Rink 1: Middlesex 19 Surrey: C Souter, C Baker, G Barnett, S Higginbotham 25. 2: Middlesex 12 C Ware, W Covington, J Shillingford, G McDonagh 18. 3: Middlesex 23 M Street, M Olver, A Clarke, A White 16. 4: Middlesex 28 G Street, J Clarke, C Sewell, D Morris 15.

Surrey continued their fine form with a 127-92 victory over Somerset at Epsom last week.

It was a big turnaround from Surrey’s 33-shot defeat at Keynsham last year.

Surrey won four of the six rinks with Kenneth Dalgleish (Knaphill), Andrew Barclay (Old Coulsdon), John Exton (Ashtead) and Jim Scott (Epsom) winning theirs 34-12.

With just two more county friendly matches remaining this season, at home to Notts on September 4 and in Middlesex on September 9, president Frank Dodd has a chance to record 14 wins in the season and claim the best record of any County President since Alan Ballantyne in 1998.

Rink 1: Surrey John Tucker, Peter Miller, Roy Gentle, David Miller 11 Somerset 21. 2: Deric Homes, George Sperring, Jack Linden, Alan Simon 21 Somerset 13. 3: Bob Harrow, Mark Compsty, Joe Cable, Frank Dodd 17 Somerset 14. 4: Roger Rashleigh, Aga Hassan, Eddie Evans, Mike Reed 16 Somerset 24. 5: Peter Duncan, Tony Plater, John Garland, Mike McDonagh 28 Somerset 8. 6: Kenneth Dalgleish, Andrew Barclay, John Exton, Jim Scott 34 Somerset 12.