Bowls: England lose an unbeaten record

ENGLAND'S John Ottaway, Roy Cutts, Andy Thomson and John Bell lost their unbeaten record yesterday in the Woolwich World Fours Championship in Worthing. Canada, enjoying good form, beat them 23-19.

England had come close to having their unbeaten run ended on Wednesday when they trailed Fiji by 11-16 with seven ends to play. They recovered from that situation, but yesterday, in a game of fluctuating fortunes against the Canadians, they failed to make good a smaller deficit.

England, who had led 11-4 after eight ends and dropped 16-13 down after 16, found themselves 18-16 in front again with three ends to play. But Canada picked up a four on the 19th end and three more on the next to help them to a 23-19 win.

That result moved Canada into No 1 position in the section although England, in second, have a game in hand.

In the singles, Tony Allcock, of England, coasted to a 25-5 win over Swaziland's Hayley Abrahams. Meanwhile, Richard Corsie, of Scotland, kept his title hopes alive when he picked up 17 consecutive shots to beat Rudy Wild, of Papua New Guinea, 25-9.

Israel's Jess Rabkin, unbeaten in section B, increased his winning run to 10 when he recovered from 23-18 down to beat Hong Kong's Mark McMahon 25-23.