FRESH from their cliffhanging league opener at Deane, Bury Seniors opened their Lancashire County Red Rose League home fixtures when they entertained reigning champions, Bolton Old Links at Unsworth Hall.

Captain John Latham and club chairman John Bradbury were soon engrossed in a see-sawing opener against visiting skipper, John Killoran and Dave Harvey, only for the Bolton duo to ease away in the home straight to taste first blood by 4&2.

The new pairing of Dave Johnson and Rick Boyd found Malcolm Burton and Dave Brewer really tough nuts to crack and honours even on the 18th green was a fitting end to a gripping tussle.

Gordon Pilkington and Trevor Ince had a significant handicap start on Jim Cunliffe and Steve Heap.

Once again the handicappers had it right on the day with the visitors snatching victory on the 18th. Tight matches continued with nothing to split the home pairing of P A Dawson and Brian Little and Bolton’s John Walley and Brian Carroll.

Fortunes however swung Bury’s way in the fifth game with Ian Marsh and Ken Pendleton battling hard to see off the challenge of Dave Ashton and Terry Martin, with two games to play and Bolton leading 6-4.

Needing to win both games to secure the win, John Milbourne and Gordon Swinnerton looked well on course to level the match before a fighting response from Dave Botterill and Howard Barwell secured the game 2&1 and with it the match.

Bolton made it 10-4 on the day when Alan Buckley and Ian Tidswell withheld a late revival from Mike Howarth and Brian Simper to win 4&2.

Bury could gain great comfort from their performance in a match which saw five of the seven games going the distance.

Bury made 11 changes for the visit to Leyland with only Latham, Bradbury and P A Dawson retaining their places.

Latham and Dawson gave the visitors the perfect start beating Nev Crabtree and Frank Berry on the 18th. With Gerry Barnes and Brian Simper going down 7&6 to Stuart Russell and Bill Chamberlain it was up to Bradbury and Dave Kerry to edge out David Mcghee and Paul Blizzard 2&1 to keep Bury’s noses in front.

Leyland hit back in game four with David Slater and Terry Fowler seeing off Dave Dredge and Rod Davies to level the match. Back came Bury, with Gordon Tyrie and Maurice Almond beating David Taylor and Chris Heywood, then Dave Bell and Ted Foster squaring game six with Bob Parker and Pat Somerby, to lead 7-5 with one game to play.

Once again a close encounter ensued before Paul Hallam and Eddie Bell gave Leyland a 7-7 draw holding off fierce resistance from Jim Pilkington and Peter Dawson.

With 17 points from their opening three matches, Bury sit comfortably in mid-table, showing a marked improvement on early 2014 form.