Friday 7 August 2015

Am I impressed?

More like embarrassed by the poor quality of my bowls this evening.

Fifty miles round trip to Peterborough to play Parkway. They're one of the top clubs in Cambridgeshire. Apparently, we always give them a good game.

Playing in a club cup. Which one? Haven't a clue, there are so many. This one is one men and one ladies two bowls singles, a three bowls triples and a two bowls fours. Oh, and a three bowls doubles. That's my rink, partnered by one of our club's best players and a former England two bowls winner. I'm playing lead. It's up to twenty-one ends.

Been warned the green is 'tricky'. So it proves. Seems to be grass planted in sand. We've not had any rain, so it's bone dry and lightening quick. Got a huge bend too. The line on all hands seems to be half way into the next rink. More like bowling indoors.

Both line and length are distant cousins for me. If I find one the other is off and vice versa. Okay for the first end or two, but when I'm still bowling all over the place after ten ends it's getting somewhat embarrassing. Fortunately my opposite lead, a lady in her early twenties named Hannah, isn't bowling all that much better. It's my skip who's keeping us in the game at 10-12 after fourteen ends.

Then disaster strikes and they get five on one end. Fifteen ends and 10-17. But my skip is playing a blinder. You'd think I must be really trying his patience, but he's encouraging throughout. I've given up trying to find my own line and am following the tracks of other players. Seems to be working. I'm beginning to get close to the jack at last. 

On the seventeenth end they're lying a tight two with two of my bowls either side. My skip comes up to the head and uses his foot to measure the effect of various approaches. Back he goes and delivers an amazing drive to leave us with three. Got them on the run, 15-17.

Then it's all finished. Our club is 1-3 down and the light is closing in. Even if we win on our rink, St Ives will still lose 2-3.

On the way home someone mentions the 'Hannah' I was playing against is Hannah Overton, who plays for the England under 25 team and is a twice runner-up for the England under 25 singles title. Reckon if we'd been playing the fixture at St Ives we'd have beaten them easily.

2 comments:

  1. What does "uses his foot to measure the effect of various approaches" involve more exactly?

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    1. Hi Clarke. What he did was position his foot so his toe was against the point of impact in the head and the line of his foot was the same as the incoming bowl's trajectory. Think it more vividly indicated what would happen on impact. The shot he played was one of the best I've ever seen. Regards, John

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