THIS is turning into quite a week for Castle Sports Bowls Club, writes David O'Brien.

While they can look back on a big competition win for one of their players, there is representative action to look forward to this weekend and the league campaign is getting tasty too.

Castle's Andy Hamman took the honours in the Cheshire Merit on Sunday.

He defeated Paul Garwood from Stockport 21-13 in the final of an event played out at the impressive new Helsby Community Sports Club.

The David Street club had three of the four semi-finalists on the day, with Andy beating Rob Winnington while Nick Hamman lost out to Garwood.

Castle Sports host their first Cheshire county match since the 1980s on Sunday when Derbyshire will be the visitors.

The full draw: Tom Vickers (Wharton Cons) v Nigel Iliff, Danny Nixon (Wharton Cons) v Phil Clapham, Glynn Cookson (Wharton Cons) v Gareth Nash, Carl Armitage (Houldsworth) v Ben Ryder, Jack Bushell (Wharton Cons) v Dan Petcher, Lee Johnstone (Houldsworth) v Jack Brooks, Dave Phillips (Lloyds) v Andy Milsom, Matt Thurlwell (Comberbach) v Carid Shore, Pete Illidge (Wharton Cons) v Dougen Tubey, Neal Ocego (Red Lion) v Darren Shaw, Simon Cookson (Wharton Cons) v Paul Hawker and Ben Phillips (Lloyds) v Ian Brown.

Castle will have six players representing Cheshire in the away leg at Stretton Bowls Club – Jason Cornes, David O’Brien, Andy Hamman, Rob Winnington, Ian Howell and Steven Morrey.

Play starts at both venues at 2pm.

Meanwhile, the Castle Sports Classic got underway on Saturday and two Mid Cheshire bowlers came through the first qualifying day.

Owen Cookson (Wharton Cons) and Stuart Kellett (Comberbach) both won three games to progress to the final day where they will be joined by Mark Ball and Dave McDermott.

The competition continues this Saturday with two sessions at 11am and 4pm.

This Sunday the Wharton Cons Open gets started at 6pm.

A change to the long-established format sees the number of competitors increasing from eight to 16.

Local Interest on the night is supplied by Phil Scott and Dave Hamlett Jnr.

Last Friday Castle Sports and Wharton Cons played their top-of-the-table clash in the Mid Cheshire League.

Castle recorded a narrow victory by 17 chalks. Kevin Duncalf was the best winner for Castle with a 21-6 card and Danny Nixon for Wharton, winning 21-10.

Wharton have a 249 point lead in the table currently and Castle Sports will be hoping to get a big score at Rudheath on Friday when they play their game in hand to reduce this deficit.

The Littler Cup Final will be played on Sunday at Owley Wood, with Frodsham Red Lion and Helsby hoping to be the first team to collect silverware in the Mid Cheshire League this season.