Club Finals – Day 2

On Sunday, day 2 of the Finals’ Weekend got underway with the Robert Faulds final and the 4 Wood Points. In the Robert Faulds, played between Matt E and James, a very high quality match took place with James starting the strongest to lead 12 – 2 after 8 ends, before Matt narrowed the gap to 8 – 13. James then stepped up a gear picking up 7 shots over the next two ends and going on to take the win 21 – 10. The Four Wood Points was played between Martin and Neil and for the first 7 ends Neil outscored Martin on the odd numbered ends and Martin outscored Neil on the even numbered ends. Again there were some great bowls played but in the end it was Neil who emerged as the winner by 80 shots to 50.

In Session 2 the two matches could hardly have been tighter. In the Ladies’ 2 Wood Singles, played between Gail and Elaine, it was Gail who began to pull ahead leading 10 – 5 after 11 ends. Not to be outdone, Elaine mounted a comeback winning 5 consecutive ends to edge ahead 13 – 11 with three ends to play. Two singles from Gail left the score all level at 13 – 13 after 20 of the 21 ends and in a one end shoot out it was Gail who just outdrew Gail to win 14 – 13. In the Open Singles, between Richard S and Neil, played out over the best of three sets of seven ends, Neil took a close first set 6 – 2. In the second set back came Richard drawing well with some very ‘wild’ jacks to level the game after a 6 – 4 set win. In the deciding set the scores were level at 3 – 3 after 3 ends, before Neil just edged ahead winning the next three ends to take the match 2 sets to 1.

In the final session of the weekend the Ladies’ and Men’s Club Championships were played between Pete and Neil and Anne and Vera. First to finish were the men in another high quality final which saw both players building some extremely tight heads. With a result that didn’t reflect the closeness of the game it was Neil who took the title 21 – 5. In the ladies’ final there was another battle royal as Anne started the stronger to lead 13 – 5 after ten ends and 15 – 7 after 13 ends. That seemed to be the spur to Vera who won six of the next seven ends to take the lead 19 – 16. In another twist, Anne won the next three ends to lead 20 – 19. As the 24th end developed Vera drew two very close bowls to hold match lie with each player having one bowl left. Anne responded by picking up the jack and rolling with it and Vera was unable to recapture the jack leaving Anne the champion by 21 shots to 19. An amazingly exciting end to a tremendous weekend.

Once again a huge thank you to Richard F for putting the finals’ weekend together, to all the players and spectators – we even managed to top yesterday’s attendance with 32 club members down at the green today! Thank you too to all the markers, scorers and umpires, to Club President Rosalind, to those who set up and cleared up the green, brought food for lunch and tea, helped with the lunch arrangements and the washing and tidying up. Such a great weekend, such an amazing club!