Ellis faces epic Waterloo battle
Reporter: Keith McHugh
Date published: 11 September 2015
BLACKPOOL GLORY BID: Gary Ellis.
Bowls: FIVE-times champion Gary Ellis must overcome a huge obstacle if he is to win a record-breaking sixth Waterloo Handicap title.
For the first time Ellis has been penalised two chalks for winning the previous year’s competition..
And, as everyone else starts off five instead of Ellis’s three, that handicap is doubly significant given the short nature of matches.
The great Brian Duncan, who shares Ellis’s record of five Waterloo wins, landed one of his titles off a handicap of one, so conceding starts can be overcome. But Ellis is in a tough section of the draw and will need to be at his very best, even if he comes through a testing clash against Derbyshire’s Kerry Morris in the last 64.
Ellis is one of two Chadderton League players still in the competition. The other is his Nimble Nook and Tonge team-mate Jimmy Derby, who takes on Merseyside’s Matt Gilmore.
Ellis is 7-1 to win the tournament with Derby 10-1. Birmingham’s Greg Ellis is the 4-1 favourite.
The last 64 takes place tomorrow with more matches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Live coverage of the final two days’ play starts at 10am on ITV4 - the first time for 26 years that the competition has being screen live on terrestrial television.
PRESTON’S Simon Coupe won the Tonge Classic, seeing off Hyde’s Jack Hargreaves convincingly 21-9 in the final.
NIMBLE Nook’s Steve Mellor and Barry Seville are in action in the Your Choice men’s singles at Norden BC on Sunday (6pm).
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