A bright and warm sunny day at Oxford City & County Bowls Club ,for this new event for Bowls Oxfordshire, who were drawn against local rivals - Bershire. Both teams had 12 women and 12 men on the green and my thanks also go to the few reserves that attended, in case someone forgot, but this was not the case. The green at Oxford was well presented and had good speed for the bowlers. After a photograph of this momentous occasion, the gloves were off and the match was under-way.
On rink 1, Captain Howard Watts, suported by Cathy Smith, Pat Ray and Dave Freeman had six shots on the 3 rd end and built up a nice lead, although the gap did not increase, as the Berkshire playeres found another gear. 7 shots over the 13 th and 14 th ends enabled the visitors to take the lead for the first time and looked to be making a challenge to our home side about who was going to win. Howards' team gritted their teeth and scored 5 on the last two ends, which gave the game to Oxon by a score of 20-17. On rink 2, Carol Gaskins kept her eye on her hubby Ray and was supported by Cyntgia Briant and John Hurren. The visitors got a good start and after 7 ends were leading 9-2. The Oxfordshire team won the next three ends bringing it back to 8-9, but the visitors had the stronger second half, winning 12-17 at the end. However, this rink was the last team to finish and the massed crowd watched with their fingers crossed as we entered the last end with a one shot lead overall. JH had very good woods on both the 17 th and 18 ends which altered the state of play and enabled one shot wins over both the last ends, making a win for Oxfordshire overall 100-98 shots. About tiime too, JH said !
Rink 3 had a tough match against a very strong team from Berkshire, despite gaining 3 shots on the first end. Berkshire scored on 11 of the 18 ends and had a healthy lead against Lynda Boyd, Jenny Lynch, Percy Hickman and Paul Sharman. However, recognising that things were getting close across all the green, they conjured up a 3 and 4 shot win on the 16 & 17 th ends, which helped the team score . They lost their rink 13-22 at the finish.
Rinks 4, 5 & 6 had something pleasant in common: they all won their rinks. Rink 4 had Tim Jupp skipping with team-mates Pauline Conrad-Banks and Brian ad Caroline Bloomfield. We won 10 ends compared with the 8 ends won by the opponents. The Oxfordsshire scores rose after 4 consecutive winning ends which took us to a 16-6 lead, but with a 4, 2 & 5 shot ends for Berkshire, which saved some blushes,as the winning score was 20-17. Rink 5 also won 10 of the 18 ends and they achieved the accolade of never being behind throughout the match, resulting with a win of 18-9 shots. Well done to Margaret Morris, Cilla Clarke, Rus Vircaus and skip Keith Holloway.
Finally on rink 6, we had two home players, Sue Mayo & Annie Bristow plus Nigel Cattell and skip Brian Ray. They had a slow start and were 9-3 down after 8 ends. They changed gear and added another 13 shots over 5 consecutive ends to lead 16-9. Berkshire then rallied and added 4 shots, but after a nail-biting last few ends we came out 17-16 shots in our favour.
A 100 -98 victory on our first attempt in this particular national championship, so we can all feel happy about this. My thanks to the team City& County for hosting and providing refreshments before and after the game, plus the bar. If reading this enthuses you, why not apply for selection in teh next round which is away to either Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. I hope to receive confirmation from each of todays squad that they will be available on 14 July. J.H.
Please see the photo below: