THE Ovalworld Super League campaign began with several surprise results and a series of unique scores for 1995 champions Sunny- bank who had a clean sweep 6-0 victory over newcomers Fishwick Ramblers.
Scores could so easily have been overturned as four of the six games ended 21-20 in favour of Sunnybank.
Had the visitors took two of these games they would have been happy with their first away match, but the vital last point is the one that matters most of all.
Dave Cawley set the ball rolling with a comfortable 21-14 and J Flanagan won by a similar margin 21-15.
However, the rest of the games were nailbiting affairs that could have gone either way.
Mark Haworth and Frank Hamnett both looked in danger of losing, but eventually clinched victory by the narrowest margins.
Fred Barlow and A Mathieson also had to pull out some late match winners to seal the valuable points.
Reigning champions Alexandra had a close contest with Railway Lostock who look good enough to feature prominently in the division.
At best the Alex were glad to get started with a 4-2 win which was not a comfortable scoreline by any means.
Mick Chapman opened their account with a competent performance 21-14 while Reg Horman gave them a 2-1 half time lead. After the break Alan Cottam added with a 21-15 win, before Brian Tomlinson sealed the success with a hard-earned 21-18 win.
Rose 'N Bowl Stacksteads produced the surprise of the day when they almost eclipsed Witton 5-1.
Again, several close games could have gone either way and at a couple of stages in the match, a draw seemed likely.
However, the Stacksteads team played well to steal five of the six games.
First blood went to Witton after Colin Campbell returned 21-15, but that was the last success for the luckless visitors.
Frank Herbert won a classic encounter with Peter Slinger by just a couple of points while Keith Connor and Geoff Alderson went one better, both 21-28.
Peter Williams 21-16 and Jim Heys who scored the best of the day 21-11, made it an excellent start for Stacksteads.
Bamber Bridge made a brilliant start to the season with a 6-0 clean sweep over newcomers Ighten Mount who were somewhat unfortunate to come away empty handed.
Results: Alexandra 4, Lostock 2; Bamber Bridge 6, Ighten Mount 0; Frenchwood 3, St Annes 3; Stacksteads 5, Witton 1; Sunnybank 6, Ramblers 0.
Fixtures for Sunday (11am): Frenchwood v Stacksteads; Ighten Mount v Alexandra; Lostock v Sunnybank; Ramblers v Bamber Bridge; Witton v St Annes.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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