Where's that feather gone?

Singles match this evening against my mate Kevin, from the St Andrews Bowls Club, Biggleswade. Kevin is the club's two bowls champion and beat me 21-19 in September last year. So this is serious competition.

St Andrews green opens at the end of April and Kevin hasn't rolled a bowl for seven months, so we use four on the trial ends. Lack of practice isn't evident in my opponent's play. On the third end he's is sitting with three. Takes a drive to cut that down to one. On another end, with me sitting pretty with at least two, Kevin plays a world class last bowl to curl around the back of my shot bowl, push the jack with it and take the end.

Very happy with my line and length. I'm 14-4 up by the twelfth end. All that suddenly changes, with Kevin winning five of the next six ends to draw level at 15-15. The white feathers I was using so successfully for interim aiming points in earlier ends seem to have disappeared.

Back on track by end nineteen. I take the next two ends to win 22-15.

Sat outside the clubhouse enjoying a drink, Kevin explains what happened to the feathers. He noticed I was bowling just inside them to land against the jack. So he got rid of them. Canny bowler! That's taught me a lesson. Always pick interim aiming points that aren't going to move, such as a dark or light patch on the green.

So it's now 2-2 between Kevin and me in what has become our biannual matches. Shown below is the record and this evening's scorecard.

Date	Location	Result	More info
Sep 2014	Biggleswade	Kevin 21 - 14 John	Click here
Sep 2015	St Ives	John 21- 16 Kevin	Click here
Sep 2016	Biggleswade	Kevin 21- 19 John	Click here
Apr 2017	St Ives	John 22 - 15 Kevin	Scorecard below