South Benfleet's John Seddon may have lost his bid to retain the fours at the Midland Bank Southend Men's Open Bowls Tournament, but his hopes of landing the pairs title were alive yesterday.

He beat Thorpe Bay's R Pearson 32-7 in the pairs to compensate for losing 20-11 to Essex County's Bill Turner in the fours.

It was an exact opposite for Billericay's Reg Foster, who is going for a fourth title in the fours. He kept his run going with a 32-11 win over Phil Millerchip, but came out of the pairs when Chris Clark (Essex County) beat him 25-14.

Percy Boxall (Thorpe Bay) has already retained the triples crown and ensured staying alive in the pairs with a first round success over A Evans (RHP).

Boxall looked on his way out until a late rally of 12 shots without reply over the last four ends saw him to a 27-20 triumph.

There was a great first round battle between Belfairs pair Maurice Rule and Tony Myall. It was eventually Maurice who "ruled" with seven shots over the last three without reply to win 19-15.

A Edwards (Eastwood) was involved in a real ding-dong battle with South Benfleet's R Diggins, which he eventually won 24-23.

Another bowler who has enjoyed great success in the Tournament over the years, Rayleigh's Charlie Davies, grabbed a four on the last to put out Ongar's A Haslett 23-20.

Essex County's Len Pemberton launched a brave finale to win the last four ends, but still lost 19-18 to the redoubtable Gloucester Park man Vic Hennessy.

Kevin Watkins, beaten in the singles final, won a last-end thriller with Shell's K Thornedyke. Shoebury's Watkins eventually got home 18-17.

Bill Parrack (Essex County) also had that extra special feeling when he put out Brian Neville (Rochford) 16-15.

Highly-successful Rochford man John Horrex slumped 23-8 to Bournemouth Park's Alan Veitch, while Ken Devaliant (Fairford) disposed of Ron Schwendener (Alexandra) 33-6.

The biggest first round pairs success, however, came from Essex County's G Angerstein, who thumped Hockley's Jim Keogh 40-6.

Today's action at Priory Park was again dominated by the pairs - the final of which, along with the fours and mixed fours, will be played on Friday afternoon.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.