Popular Keswick professional Geeth Kumara has been a fixture in the Cumbria Cricket League for eight years now.

A fine leg spin bowler and talented batsman, Kumara has now been given the opportunity to shine at another sporting discipline – bowls.

He has joined the Fitz Park Bowling Club and on Tuesday afternoon made his debut for the club’s ‘B’ team in the Eden Valley League away to Caldbeck.

Playing alongside Alan Dalzell and Keith Richardson in a trebles competition, he enjoyed a winning start to his new career as the Keswick trio won their rink 24-9 to help secure an overall aggregate victory for the team.

He played exceptionally well on his debut and is looking forward to playing more games for the Fitz Park Bowling Club and perfecting his delivery technique.

It’s fairly safe to assume that he is the first Sri Lankan to play bowls for Keswick, and more than likely the first to play in the league.

Incidentally, I’m reliably informed that the captain of the bowls team, Keith Price, is a former Keswick cricketer whose claim to fame is that he recorded seven successive ducks with a brand new bat.

After a slow start to the season, Keswick appear to be finding their form and some of their promising youngsters are coming to the fore.

They beat previously unbeaten Carlisle on Monday to reach the semi-final of the Higson Cup where they will host Egremont on Sunday, July 14.

They last won the Higson Cup, the Cumbria Cricket League’s premier cup competition, in 2006 and 2012.

Still lying fourth bottom, they need to make more progress in the league but haven’t fond memories of Lowmoor Road, Wigton. They have come unstuck there on several occasions at what is regarded as one of their bogey grounds.

Wigton were going well against Carlisle on Saturday when the match was abandoned. They were 90-1 off 20 overs and would love a similar start on a finer day against Keswick.