There are Hertfordshire bowlers heading to the home of Bowls England and the national finals - including one from Harpenden.

John Osborn qualified with a dramatic win over Buntingford's Dave Murphy in the area final of the senior singles.

With the score tied at 20-20, John drew shot with his final bowl to secure a 21-20 win and progress to Royal Leamington Spa.

Harpenden's men have made it to the last four in the County Club Championship after beating Welwyn & District in the south division final.

This is a three rink format with the cumulative score across all three determining the winning team.

Harpenden's rink of Roy Polley, David Brooks, Steve Maynard and Osborn were first to finish, posting a 23-9 win. With the other two rinks closely contested, the combination of

Nick Muir's rink were able to pick up three shots on the penultimate end, with Neil Herrington's trio going two better at the same stage, securing the win for Harpenden.

The overall semi-finals and final take place at Royston on August 3.

Harpenden will play the winners of the West division Garston in the semi-final and the winners then play either the North or East winners.

Townsend welcomed Potters Bar to their Waverley Road home for a triples match.

Honours were even after the first two rinks, the visitors winning one 16-13 but Townsend claiming the other 16-7.

But the third, and therefore the overall contest, was convincingly claimed by Peter Waller, Robbie Ransted and Roger Potter with a 32-5 success.

It meant Townsend won 61-28 overall.

The club annually play against a select team from London Scottish and the visitors came with a full six rinks this year. 

The match ended in a 3-3 draw in terms of rinks won, but the visitors claimed the overall plaudits by 12 shots.

Townsend's top rink was Rena and Gordon Williamson with Bernadette Martindill, who won 22-13.

St Albans Bowling Club played two fixtures in the Rinks League on consecutive evenings as well as one in the Friday Triples League.

Having beaten Potters Bar in the Bob Vise Trophy little more than a week before, Saints had high hopes of beating them across two rinks.

However, they lost heavily on both.

It was a different story a day later though as they picked up a two-shot overall win away to Hatfield.

They dropped seven shots on one rink but recovered across the last three ends to only lose by two shots.

And that coupled with a four-shot win on the other rink gave them the overall victory.

The Triples League fixture was played home and away against Shire Park, and St Albans won both rinks convincingly to take all the points.