ALCESTER Bowling Club started its Northfield League campaign with a first round Cup defeat against Kings Norton.

The quartet playing at home could only produce a single winner in Dave Hovell (21-15) and slumped to a 33-shot defeat.

The away four produced two winners, Jean Bannister (21-6) and husband Renny (21-18) giving them a five-shot win but they went out of the competition with a 28-shot defeat.

In Division One of the Heart of England Over-60s League, the A team entertained White Hart A in the return match from last week.

Nothing much changed, and the team went down to a 26-shot loss.

Once again the only winning card came from Ken Craddock (21-13), although Bannister fought back valiantly before going down 21-20. For the second week in succession, Alcester crashed to a 15 points to one defeat at the hands of their old rivals.

The B team in Division Five of the same competition visited Solihull Ladies in their return match. Although both sides had three winners, Alcester triumphed by 12 shots to gain 13 points against the home team's three.

Winning cards for Alcester came from Eric Allport (21-9), Geoff Spiers (21-10) and David Hodgson (21-19).