Bowls: Algarve invite for Hickey

SIDDAL bowler Graham Hickey has been given the perfect tonic for a troublesome knee problem - the offer of a free trip to Portugal in March to launch crown green bowls on the Algarve.

Twice Yorkshire Merit winner Hickey is one of 16 top players who have been invited to take part in a five-day tournament to celebrate the opening of the Amendoeira Bowls Club near historic Silves, a 35 minute drive from Faro airport.

Elland-raised Graeme Wilson, Brian Duncan, Noel Burrows, Gary Ellis and Lee Lawton are among others who have been given the chance to compete for £5,000 in crown and flat green competitions running from Monday, March 16 to Friday, March 20.

Window cleaner Hickey is determined to have some spring sunshine after having to cope with an increasingly painful right knee during the last year.

Hickey, who won back to back county titles at the Low Moor Harold club in Bradford in 2005 and 2006, spent Christmas in hospital.

He went in to have the back of his knee cap scraped but the surgeon had to remove a cartilage, shave two bones and attend to a twisted ligament.

Although Hickey is now back at work the problem hasn't fully cleared up and a scan next Wednesday will determine if further treatment is required.

But Hickey is determined to make it to Portugal before the domestic season gets into full swing, having paid £300 for flights for his wife Jill and son Finley to join him on the trip.
Jimmy Parker, the bowls manager at the famous Waterloo club in Blackpool, is doing much of the organising and Hickey added: "I am flattered that Jimmy rates me among the top 16 bowlers in the country.

"The prize money is very good so I will be doing my best to win some."
The Amendoeira club, which is based at a luxury golf resort, has two grass greens - a 40-metres square flat green and a 37 metre square crown green which is believed to be the first top quality one outside the UK.

There will be competitions on both greens with the top players from England taking on Portugeuse players and guests. The crown green competition is a singles event with players split into groups of four and playing one game of 15 up against a different player in the group on each of the first three days.

The top players in each group will compete for a £1,000 winner's cheque on Friday's finals day and the other bowlers will take part in a consolation trophy competition on Thursday.
Hickey also plans to take part in the flat green competition, which is a pairs event over five days, and hopes to team up with his regular indoor partner Wilson.