Top Club v Kingswood and Hanham won 3-2
This is what bowls is all about, an exciting game with us just piping our opponents by one on the last end of both singles (it’s only exciting of course, if you win!)
As we know the 2 singles are key to this comp.
Andy in the 2 woods was always behind, 6 down at 16 ends, but as many players at Redland have learnt over the years Andy is never out of it in a 2 wood comp and getting 4 consecutive singles went into the last end 2 down then playing a great shot to push the opponents wood through the head managed to put the game into an extra end, and bowling a reasonable “dapper “sneaked in” for a well fought back win 15-14.
Editor’s Note: My task might have been easier if I hadn’t bowled a wrong bias early on which really is unforgivable in a two wood…..
Meanwhile in the 4 bowl singles:
Josh went in front early on but was slowly pegged back and the score was 18-20 down when holding a single then played a brilliant?/brave?/foolhardy? shot to pull the jack back 6 inches for a 2.
So we went into the last end all square 20-20 and with all the other rinks focusing on this game and not their own, Josh was 3 down but with his last wood (which this time was brilliant) bowled through a gap of a foot, trailed the jack, stayed with it for one and the game.
These 2 wins set us up for the match.
In the pairs with Will and Calvin didn’t start well and it didn’t seem to get better as the game went on with an eventual loss 4-25 (one of those games chaps?)
This wasn’t particularly worrying as on Jim’s rink with Trev and Mark went off like a rocket and carried on to the stratosphere to record a 27-8 win, conceded by our opponents on end 16 as they couldn’t mathematically then recover.
On R K Jones rink with Mike, Nigel and Kev, all struggled to be 6-12 down at 12 ends at which point Kev announced “look chaps nobody has been watching us up to now so they don’t know how crap we’ve bowled so now they are looking we better get down to it” (although to be fair to Rog he had bowled 3 or 4 very good trailing shots to save/ get shot). This “pep? talk” seemed to work and we won the next 4 ends to go 13-12 in front, unfortunately conceding a 3 on end 17 left the score 13-15 to K&H, but at this point nobody was concerned as the match was in the bag.
Well done.
Away to GB Britton in the next round – date to be arranged.
Finally thanks to the K&H ladies for providing sandwiches etc after the match.
PS All the best to Josh, Calvin and Mark in their Glos Triples Quarter Final tonight (at Cheltenham Bowls Club).