As shown in last week’s article, the Cumbria Bowling Association was making great progress through the 1970s. But in the Middleton Cup there was little progress.

The decade had began well for, in 1970, Cumbria carried all before it, winning all four games against Durham, Northumberland, Lancashire and Yorkshire to easily top the group.

In the semi-final, they met Nottingham but it turned out to be another to add to the list of disappointments when they lost by 31 shots. That defeat seemed to be a real setback for the county for, in the next nine years, they only managed to finish second on two occasions, though in 1977 they failed by a single shot.

They also had two third places but, sadly, finished fourth on six occasions. Lancashire at that time were perpetually bottom of the table.

On the competition front, there were two additions in the late 70s. After the death of Jack Kilgour in 1976, his family gave a trophy which was played for annually between teams selected by the president and senior vice-president. This was in effect a game between Carlisle clubs and clubs outside Carlisle.

It was the senior vice-president’s “privilege” to entertain both teams to tea. This was no problem when the position of president alternated between city and county. But 1977 was the last year that the rule applied.

The other new competition was in effect a thank you to all those secretaries who kept their clubs running. The Cavray Cup was won for the first time by Josie Baxter, of Wigton British Legion, while the beaten finalist was Ian Thompson who was the secretary of Metal Box.

In the county competitions, Wigton’s John Bell had returned to Cumbria after further education in Lancashire and gave immediate notice of what was to follow when beating Bim Tyson of Edenside in the singles final. And he followed that up by winning the Northern Counties Singles.

In the same year, he skipped W Corrigan and his father Jack Bell to beat Bob Baxter, Tom Harper and Gordon Sewell of Courtfield in the triples, the first of multiple successes in this competition.

One year on, and Bell skipped his four to a victory over Tyson. After this initial flourish, he had to wait four years before the next one, again in the triples when he was partnered by Ron Baxter and Josie Baxter.

Again, they went on to success in the Northern Counties.

However, in 1976, the same triple enjoyed even greater success. They reached the final of the county triples but, in an amazing final at Dalston, they lost out to the unfancied Edenside triple of Gordon Hodgson, Bob Wood and Harry Shadwick.

Hodgson was just a young player who had not been in the game long and, sadly, died soon after as a result of a rugby injury.

Wood had a large market garden on Wigton Road and also set-up an indoor rink in one of the greenhouses, where the home four of Bob Wood, Gilbert Brough, Cash Little and Harry Shadwick played competitive friendlies against invited fours.

I had the pleasure of playing there on two occasions. Heating was provided by piped water and Bob was always anxious that nobody touched the pipe which was he said very, very, hot. No doubt health and safety would have been aghast!

Bell’s Wigton trio soon put the county final defeat behind them and went to Worthing and lifted the national triples trophy. These wins put Bell in the spotlight and, not surprisingly, both he and Ron Baxter were selected for the international trial.

Selection was not immediate but Bell had another trial the following year and it came as no real surprise when bearing in mind England’s last series win had been in 1964, that he was chosen to for the 1978 series.

Incidentally, Tony Allcock made his debut in the same series. Bell gained a further honour when he was selected to play with Mal Hughes in an Invitation Pairs in Australia in 1979. They returned unbeaten with the gold medal.

After that, there was a slight lull in county competition wins but, in 1983, he won the singles again, beating a Cumbria stalwart John Tremble in the county final and followed up by going all the way at Worthing and the following year completed the treble in the British Isles Singles.

In 1984, Bell enjoyed a second county fours win and won this competition twice more in 1990 and 2013. In 1985, he won the triples for the third time and went on to have further success in 1992, 94, 2000, 01, 07, 08, 09 and 2011, a quite remarkable run, all the more so in that he also won the British Isles Triples with Paul Barlow and Andrew Baxter in 1992.

In that year, he also won the British Isles Pairs with Ron Gass. They had won the national pairs in 1991 but had lost in the county final to Stanwix, John McManus and Thomson Bowerbank, whose father George had also won the pairs with Frank Johnson in 1965 and 1967, the second of these wins was followed by success in the Northern Counties.

Bell and Gass were a very strong pair but, amazingly, they lost three county finals before managing a win in 1996. Oddly, Bell has not won the pairs since then, his nearest miss being in 2006 when partnered by his son John he lost to another father and son combination from Whitehaven, Jack and Steven Walker our present County Secretary.

With so much success in Cumbria in the late 70s and early 80s, it should have followed that the Middleton side would also be on the up but, in fact, results in the 70s were distinctly moderate. However, the 80s saw an upturn.

In 1981, the county just lost out on shots and, in 1982, won three out of four only to finish second.

In 1983, playing in a new group consisting of Nottingham, Derby and Yorkshire, Cumbria won all three games to go to the quarter-final against Northumberland.

The 1983 season had not started well, for Cumbria lost to Lancashire for the first time ever in a Muras match staged at Cleator Moor. However, the Middleton campaign had an early boost with a 53-shot victory over Derbyshire, at Dalston, and followed up with an excellent 31-shot win against Yorkshire at Northallerton.

In the last of the group games, Cumbria had home advantage against Nottingham and the early exchanges were in the home side’s favour. However, Nottingham came back strongly and at one point led by seventeen shots.

The Cumbria side showed real determination in the closing stages however and, despite winning on just two of the six rinks, got home overall by four shots. Before that great win over Nottingham, however, Cumbria had played a Muras match against Northumberland and lost by 29 shots.

This created a real problem for the County Association because Northumberland now stood between Cumbria and a Middleton semi-final.

In 1983, the skips were selecting their own Middleton rinks but the county executive were concerned to such degree that there were two meetings held before the side for the Middleton quarter-final was selected. There was also a concern that the selected venue for the quarter final was Hebburn, just across the river from Northumberland, neutral but not very neutral! More on that next week.

Penrith Friars was another of the association’s founder members. The green was laid in 1870 at a cost of £130, the funds having been provided by nine Trustees.

The only other green in Penrith at that time was part of the Two Lions Hotel. The site of the green was probably a smallholding, for a Mr Graham was paid 16 shillings [80 pence today] to move a haystack before the green could be laid!

In 1886, Friars played a friendly against Stanwix and this became an annual event. In 1888, there was also a fixture against Kirby Lonsdale, what happened to them?

In 1896, the club had a new bower and, in an effort to attract new members, the subscription was dropped from ten shilling to four and sixpence. In 1907, there was a new green in Penrith at The Conservative Club and bowls' popularity seems to have been on the increase with a game against Lazonby, a new Penrith Tournament, affiliation to the EBA in 1912, a bower extension and a new game against Lyndhurst BC, of Gateshead.

After the war, it was reported that the one penny box had raised £28.1.10d, i.e 6,742 losers had paid one penny each. By 1921, the membership had reached 107 - those were the days.

In 1931, Friars won the county fours (P Grant) and reached the third round of the national finals. The club was also represented at the nationals in both the pairs and the fours in 1937 and, in 1941, played a first friendly match against Blackpool.

And in 1956, George Cook, a real character who entertained on several county tours, and who enjoyed some success in the county competitions with The Ex Servicemen’s Club, presented new scoreboards.

Sunday play began in the 1960s and Friars commenced in 1963 though play was only allowed from 2.00pm onwards. Tom Wilson was elected as county president, Friars third president after R Irving 1928, and S Pearson 1944-46. Jim Atkinson is the only one since in 1970.

The Northern Counties Championships were played at Friars in 1964 and, the following year, ladies were granted membership. In 1973 the green was squared.

After a long wait R Hayhurst skipped his four to the national finals and, in 1986, the centenary match against Stanwix was played.

The new bower was opened in 1990 and, in 1993, the Centenary Border City Tournament was won by the Friars rink of D Snaith, W Bracken, J Osborne and A Bracken.

Walter Bracken won the County Unbadged singles in 1996 but, even better, his son Andrew won the green championship for the 16th time in 2007.

In that period he appeared in six Champion of Champions finals, winning five of them, his only defeat was by John Crozier of Longtown.