Redland v Olveston – Lost 33-35
The following report was prepared by Kevin French:
As I’ve said before when you play against Olveston you have have to be on top of your game, although early in the season with everybody being a bit rusty things can be finely balanced…..
I would suggest that after our form in recent years, especially in this format, teams who come up against Redland realise they are going to have a potential tussle on their hands.
Having said that Olveston’s 2 rinks contained 5 Middleton Cup (county players)so was a tough call for us, but the game was closely fought with both sides respecting each others bowling abilities.
On Jim’s rink with Will, Keith and Andy started well to go 8-5 up but seemed to lose their way a little and conceding a 5 on end 17 didn’t help matters: final score 13-22.
Editor’s Note: A very disappointing/frustrating result but mention must be made of Keith who had a great first game at this level.
Over on Josh’s rink with Mark, RKJ and our new? up and coming? super lead??, Kev (substituting for Calvin), early on it didn’t look good going 4-11 behind and in truth without a few bits of good fortune it would have been worse.
The rink then “knuckled down” and winning 9 out of the next 11 ends and with Jim’s rink finished, Redland needed 5 from the last 2 ends to force a draw. Picking up a single left us needing 4 on the last end and with Josh playing a great take out shot we were holding 3 but the Olveston skip (Ian Gauld) reduced this to 2 and with Josh’s final wood there was no way to get a 4.
But an exciting and close end to the match and we have plenty of competitions that we are still in to play for this season.
Best wishes to the Olveston players and our own Josh for the Middleton Cup trial on Saturday at Cheltenham Bowls Club (Andy will be there as well as travelling reserve.)