Bowls: Allcock studies alchemy

ENGLAND stepped up their drive for places in both the singles and fours finals of the Woolwich World Championships in Worthing on Sunday when they beat Jersey in both competitions yesterday.

The England international, Tony Allcock, produced a devastating finishing burst in his singles match with David Le Marquand, accelerating away from

12-12 at 15 ends to win the next six ends 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1 and achieve a 25-12 victory which kept him on course for the gold medal.

Earlier, Allcock had been forced into a marathon 38-end match with the American, Frank Souza. Allcock - who had suffered a surprise defeat by the Welshman, Will Thomas, on Sunday - eventually snatched a 25-23 win. He had led 24-19 after 34 ends, but Souza recovered four shots over the next three ends and briefly looked as if he might gain the double he needed for victory on the next. But Allcock reduced the count to one and then drew shot for victory with his final wood.

Scotland's Richard Corsie survived a difficult match, edging out Caucau Turagebeci, of Fiji, 25-22. Thomas surrendered his unbeaten record, losing 25-19 to the 1984 champion, Peter Belliss of New Zealand. Earlier, however, Thomas had produced a great last wood to overcome Zimbabwe's Mark McCormick, homing in on the jack and scoring the three he needed for a 25-23 success. Bill Moseley, of South Africa, stretched his winning run to three with an impressive 25-16 win over the Irish champion, Stevie Adamson.

In the fours, England's John Ottaway, Roy Cutts, Andy Thomson and John Bell took an early grip against Marcel Coutouly's Jersey rink, opening up a 13-4 lead and going on to win 20-14. The main surprise came when Swaziland picked up four shots over the last two ends to edge out Scotland 25-23.