Still in Contention…

This week we had a scheduled bye in the Clegg league, and as it happens that brings all the teams in the division level on games played (8). Surprisingly, our main rivals at the top of the table, Crawford Park, managed only a 7-7 draw at Rockcliffe, which means that they are now just five points ahead – our match with them in a few weeks’ time may turn out to be a title decider, but of course we first have to win the other (home) games.

There was a home game also in the West Tyne, against Prudhoe Castle. The overall scorecard might show that we drew ahead at a regular rate thoughout the match, but the finer detail makes clear that this was largely because of one rink, which went from 7-5 to 19-5 between the tenth and fifteenth ends. Clearly that had been a tight game for the first half, and the other rinks were never really sure of winning – one of them was tied 13-13 with three ends to go. However, over the last three ends the three Prudhoe rinks managed only two shots, so that we won quite comfortably, with margins of three, five and fifteen shots. Full points kept us two points clear of Haltwhistle Falcons at the top of the table. The Falcons visit Elvaston the night after we go to Crawford Park – that will be a big week!

So much for the league activity. In another West Tyne competition John Lambert played the second leg of the singles final at Haltwhistle on a beautiful sunny evening. John had a three-shot advantage from the first game, but this soon disappeared as George Rogan picked up several early ends. Neither player seemed quite sure which hand to play for much of the game, and each had to put up with promoting the other’s woods at some cost – but John suffered rather more. After 12 of the 18 ends George was leading 18-3, therefore 12 shots ahead overall, and the game seemed to be over. Even when John then scored three singles it meant the lead was nine with only three ends left. But suddenly a two made the calculations more interesting, and a three on end 17 meant that the overall lead was precisely four with one end left.

By this stage George was clearly feeling the pressure, and when John put two bowls close on the last end he took a great gamble and fired. It paid off in that he burned the end, and had to re-play it, but if he had missed it would have seemed really reckless in that he needed only second, third or even fourth bowl to win the match. However, we should congratulate him for managing the direct hit, and for getting so close on the last end that despite John’s best efforts George actually got the shot. In the end it was a five-shot win, and John’s late comeback was just a little too late. It also meant that our club has still never managed to win that singles title, despite some strong candidates over the years.

Maximum Points

There’s not a lot of point in trying to create any doubt or suspense after a heading like that, is there? So let’s just announce that it was a highly successful week, with big wins in both the Clegg and the West Tyne. The scores (14-0 and 5-0) meant a rare double clean-sweep, but even more interesting than the actual results were the performances below the headline figures.

In the Clegg we welcomed another début appearance, with Ed Clarke making a step up to a league team. Mike Pearce and especially Phil Percy had already come into the team in earlier weeks, and it was very encouraging to see Ed blend in and start playing excellent shots from the very start right through to the last end. But with stubborn opponents the rink was behind at all the milestone ends, and after 15 ends the score was 10-17. But once again John Lambert’s use of the mat seemed to disorientate the opposition, and the score after the full 21 ends was 22-18. Winning those last six ends 12-1 was what you might call leaving it late, but stands as another example of our late comebacks this season.

Mark’s rink also had to come from behind, although 6-10 after ten ends wasn’t exactly looking down a barrel. However, what followed blew Westerhope out of the water, with a four, a five and a full-house six included in a great run which ended with the score 26-20. That was a high-scoring rink all round – it’s quite unusual for a team to be beaten with 20 shots on the board. Keith Sanders’s rink was ahead for most of the time, though things got quite tight at around 15 ends, but this was the opposite in terms of generosity with overall shots as the final score was 17-12. Steve’s rink was quite comfortably ahead most of the way, opening a safe gap and winning 23-13. The final result in terms of overall shots was 88-63, but it was nothing like as easy a win as that suggests: we won the first five ends 16-15 and lost the next five by precisely the same score, so that 25-shot margin was all down to the second half of the match. Westerhope had been tough opponents in the away game a couple of weeks ago, and once again gave us a really good run. But having started the night 14 points ahead of them in the league it was really good to get another 14 here.

For the West Tyne match at Alston we were able to put out a very strong team, and it showed in terms of results. One of our rinks was restricted to a single-figure lead for the whole match, but the others increased their leads from the very start, finishing with wins of 25-7 and 39-7. An overall score of 82-28 did wonders for our shots difference in the league, and as it happened other results went our way with all three being won by the lower-placed club. As a consequence we went to the top of the table. All the usual caveats apply, as we do have a couple of tough games to come, but it’s still a nice position to be in at this stage of the season.

As well as the league games this week it’s fair to mention the first leg of the West Tyne singles final, in which John Lambert played George Rogan of Haltwhistle. The three people on the green, plus the three spectators, enjoyed a friendly, skilful game with some great saving bowls and a couple of hands-on-head misses. Each leg is 18 ends, and after that first leg John leads 16-13. The second leg is on Wednesday 21st, at Haltwhistle of course, at 18.00. Best of luck, John: we suspect the crowd will be bigger!

A Second-half Team?

After beating Rockcliffe 12-0 at home a couple of weeks ago we could reasonably look forward with some confidence to the return fixture in the Clegg league. The only real doubt was whether we could field a team, given the rival attraction of England’s semi-final in the evening. The problem was solved by shifting the match (ours, that is, not the less important one at Wembley) to an early start of 17.30. We duly turned up in Whitley Bay under ominous black clouds and a sudden drop in temperature, but the biggest threat to the game wasn’t the weather as much as the fact that the home team were several players short. Amid general confusion we reached the rather absurd situation where two rinks had started, one was about to start with only two home players while the fourth rink had our three players standing around like wallflowers while one solitary home player joined them. After a few minutes’ delay it worked out that we did get three full rinks and one rink where Rockcliffe played with two, taking a penalty reduction in shots for the advantage gained.

The green looked lovely, and had good consistent bends, but it was still rather sluggish, so that it took several ends before we collectively learned how to deal with it. Thankfully there was just one shot on the first two ends as we managed to win only two of the eight ends in question, and with only one rink winning the third end we were soon 5-13 behind. But it was significant that only one rink lost an end on the fourth and fifth ends, so that the score after five was 16-16. The benefits of home advantage early in the match have seldom been clearer.

Once we had got level in this way we never lost the overall lead. Keith Sanders had the misfortune of playing on the rink where the home team had two players, including their most notable player, and Rockcliffe had a couple of runs where our team got stuck, unable to reclaim the jack: even with a third of their score deducted Rockcliffe won the match by seven shots. Meanwhile, Steve’s rink were behind all the way, albeit making a real match of it. In fact, they won 11 of the 21 ends, but unfortunately most of those were singles while the opposition scored three threes. Despite reducing an eight-shot deficit to one with a couple of ends to go, that single shot was still the difference at the end.

Our other two rinks benefited as the sun came out. Keith Woods and Trevor were both behind after six ends, but each took the lead by scoring a four. From then on they drew ahead thanks to several counts, Trevor’s team scoring two fours and two threes, while Keith’s rink not only duplicated those details but threw in a six for (very) good measure. The result was that despite winning just 11 and 12 ends respectively the scores were 26-14 and 30-13, more than enough to guarantee the all-important bonus points in a 10-4 win.

Rockcliffe was another of the clubs we have seen using different mats and jacks for each team, though the effect was rather spoiled by using only white jacks, with obvious scope for confusion. The real inconsistency came when one of their team proffered his hand to shake hands before the match – and then looked a bit hurt when the offer was declined! (It was also the first time we have seen someone wearing a mask throughout the match.) As we reach the end of the period where Covid restrictions are formally ended it will be interesting to see how clubs respond. Your reporter was recently reminded by one of our leads that it’s all very well being dismissive of the separate jack policy when you play skip, as opposed to being at the sharp end of actually holding the jack and mat. Fair enough – but oh, how we long for a return to normality on the green!

There was almost normality at Haltwhistle in the West Tyne – certainly it’s a club where we get the perfect mix of competitiveness and friendship. We played the Eagles in the first round of return fixtures in this year’s schedule – a bit of a sad landmark to be starting the equivalent of the back nine already. The green looked immaculate, and enabled both sides to play some excellent bowls. On our own side there were several notable performances. Choosing just one from each rink, Phil Percy showed again how fast he is learning this game, and was a crucial link at second; Christina played directly opposite the Haltwhistle singles champion of a couple of years ago and on many ends outplayed him; while Ken Hurst was back to his old form after a lay-off, bringing skill and enthusiasm in equal measure to the team.

It’s unusual, and possibly unfair, to single out individuals in this way because these were notable collective performances against a strong team. Brian Elstob led his team in typically understated fashion as they went from 5-2 (five ends) to 12-4 (ten) and then winning the last three ends by a margin of 6-1 to finish 21-11 up. Keith Sanders’ rink did even better, also against strong opposition: from 2-3 (five ends) they went to 11-4, and then went even further ahead to reach 17-6 and finally 21-9. Meanwhile Trevor’s rink were neck and neck throughout thanks to some rather fortuitous outcomes for the home side, until eventually luck deserted them and they gave away a three on the penultimate end to leave us 15-11 up, at which point it was easy to ensure a close result on the last end.

Regular readers may recognise a pattern in another strong finish: 15-5 overall on the last three ends. To come back from Haltwhistle with maximum points, having been ahead overall all the way, is unusual, however much their club may have been weakened by splitting into two squads. The result left us one point behind league leaders the Falcons, and should set up a really good home game against them in a few weeks’ time.

Late Comebacks

Apologies first of all for the lack of a report last week – it’s amazing how a house move can disrupt the schedule, even for the most important things in life! But at least there is more than usual in this week’s report.

The Round-of-16 matches in the Euro football finals saw a couple of late comebacks (Switzerland’s last-minute equaliser against France, and Ukraine’s last-kick winner against Sweden spring to mind). Our teams also kept the best till last in several games this week, but before looking at those we should catch up on the ladies’ game against Morpeth (23 June).

The previous league match had ended in a one-shot defeat after a close encounter, and this one also proved to be tight. Susan’s rink did well to stack up an eleven-shot win as twelve of the 18 ends were decided by singles; but by winning 13 ends and securing almost all the multiple scores our team won 18-7. Shelagh’s rink got off to a slow start but managed to recover from 2-10 to 8-10 over a run of four ends; that was the one purple patch, however, and the final result was 10-16. It was a similar story for Betty, also winning seven ends and with the obvious damage done in losing five ends on the trot to go from 3-3 after five to 3-12 after ten. That basic margin remained, and with a 8-16 score we found we had lost overall by 36-39 on shots. The three rinks were all relatively low-scoring, with similar numbers – total shots on each rink were 24, 25 and 26 – and the number of ends won was equal at 27 per team. But however close it might have been in these statistical terms the sad fact remained that it was a 2-12 defeat on league points.

Later the same day the men welcomed Rockcliffe in the Clegg league, hoping to recover after two defeats. Keith Woods’ result was never in doubt, 15 shots up after 15 ends and easy 27-15 winners; John Lambert was also able to control the game in the final ends, finishing at 25-13, while Mark was not only well-placed after 15 ends (18-10) but finished with an extra flourish to win 31-10. The overall result was clearly settled at this stage, but Keith Sanders’ rink, last to finish, had the chance to make it a clean sweep. Things hadn’t looked promising early on and at the half-way mark it was 4-12. This had come back to 11-14 after fifteen ends and 15-15 with two ends to play. In the twentieth end the shot bowl changed at least four times, but Rockcliffe won it so that, going into the last, it was 15-16. With the skips to play Rockcliffe were lying one, but Keith drew the shot before the Rockcliffe skip, with his last bowl, turned one of ours in to make it two shots to us, so that Keith (to the relief of a sizeable audience!) chose not to bowl his last wood. The 17-16 win made it 14-0 on league points and also made it 100 shots in total for ourselves on the night – scoring a ton is quite a rarity in this league.

There was not much chance of repeating that feat at Westerhope this week, not least because they were top of the league. The green looked to be in lovely condition, but turned out to be astonishingly slow – it was very “pushy”, more remininscent of April than the last day of June. Adjustments of pace were very tricky, and of course home advantage, with knowledge of such conditions, was important.

All the better, then, that we managed to keep heads above water. Trevor’s rink held their own early on, though it was always close, and after eleven ends the score was 8-4. The home team’s use of long ends then took its toll, and the final result was 15-22. Mark repeated the late act of the previous week, moving from 12-8 after fifteen ends to 23-9 after the full 21; and Keith Woods also moved well ahead, from 9-3 after ten ends to 19-4 after fifteen, and maintaining that margin to the end (26-11). Not to be outdone, Keith Sanders managed a reprise of the Rockcliffe finale, slipping from 10-4 to 12-16 after 15 ends, then going into the last end at 19-19. It looked to be a measure until Keith slipped a forehand through an unlikely gap to clinch the shot and another two league points for a 12-2 league win and (pending other results) a brief spell at the top of the table. Two excellent results, anyway.

Sandwiched somewhere between them was a drab, dreich night at Haltwhistle, where it rained throughout last week’s West Tyne match and we came away empty-handed as well as wet. It wasn’t all bad: Mark’s rink lost by only one shot, while Brian Elstob’s trio led 12-7 after 13 ends – but then lost the last five by a margin of 1-12. Keith Sanders had a good enough opening, but going from 6-7 to 6-16 was a crucial run. And – apart from the friendliness of the hosts – that is probably all we should say about a difficult night.

This week’s West Tyne match was at home against Hexham House A(bbey). Trevor’s rink was up against what was clearly the strongest House rink, so it was really not the night for him to turn in a poor performance – even more erratic than the previous night at Westerhope, where at least the green was a mitigating factor. The score here mounted alarmingly in favour of the visitors, reaching 9-26 towards the end. But our other rinks had done much better, and with Mark’s men scoring a seven on one end it turned out that after 15 ends there was only one shot in it overall: 38-37 in our favour. At this point, not only did Keith Sanders and Mark continue their excellent run to finish 23-5 and 20-10 up respectively, but having something to play for seemed to galvanise Trevor’s rink, who won the last three ends, scoring ten shots in the process. Indeed, the last three ends on the three rinks finished 22-2 in our favour, so that we not only won two rinks but also claimed the bonus points with a 60-39 win. It really was a strong finish, and no doubt a major surprise to those spectators who left early. They thought it was all over…