IT was a case of ‘oh brother’ when Marsh United hosted Milnsbridge in the Huddersfield Veterans League.
In the home team were brothers Bill (77) and Trevor (74) Blackburn while in the Milnsbridge line-up was their 67-year-old brother David.
Bill is in his 61st year of competitive bowling while Trevor has done 58 and David 51 – that’s 160 years between them – although they all started bowling much earlier than that.
The Blackburn household was up Linfit Lane, immediately behind Linthwaite Hall Bowling Club.
Their father, Edward, was a member at the club and all three started bowling when they were about 10 years old. Unlike today, there were no junior leagues, so they were allowed on the green only when no-one else was around!
They were allowed, however, to practice on the strip of grass which ran alongside the bowling green.
Of the three, David has won most honours, playing for Yorkshire on more than 70 occasions, winning the Yorkshire Merit in 1976 and finishing runner-up in the All England competition. Among his many other successes are the Colne Valley, ICU and Liberal competitions.
Trevor won the Williams Stones Handicap in 1987 and, the following season, the Barkers Sports (now Spring Handicap) and Liberal Merit.
Bill won the Summer Festival Merit in 1976, run by the then Huddersfield Corporation and held in Greenhead Park, which attracted over 500 bowlers.
He also won the Pudsey Littlemoor Floodlit Open in 1989.
For the record, Marsh won the match against Milnsbridge 6-3 and all the brothers won their matches!
