5.9.21 Club Finals Day 2

The sun shone for the second day of our finals. Session 1 saw Claire and Mary play Alison and Neil in the Handicap Pairs Competition and Barry play Pete in the Open Championship. In the Pairs, Alison and Neil opened up a 16 – 6 lead after 11 ends, only for Claire and Mary to come right back and reduce the deficit to 3 shots, with 3 ends to play. A 2 and a 1, for Alison and Neil saw them take the win 21 – 15. In the Open Championship, played in a 7-ends sets format, Pete took the first set against Barry 10 – 4 and followed it up with an 8 – 2 second set, taking the title by 2 sets to 0.

In Session 2 the weekend ended with the finals of the Robert Faulds’ Competition between Rosalind and Gail, the Handicap between Neil (-2) and Richard (0) and the Men’s Championship between Pete and Martin. In the Robert Faulds’ Competition, Gail got off to a strong start to lead 10 – 3 after 7 ends, Rosalind then responded, closing the gap to 3 shots, after 18 ends, to trail 14 – 17. The final two ends however went to Gail, who secured the win 22 – 14. In the Handicap, a close game ensued, with the scores level after 7 ends, again after 14 ends and again after 22 ends. On the 23rd end Neil edged ahead with a single, only for Richard to take 3 shots and the game 21 – 19. The Men’s Championship was another close game with the scores level after 10 ends, before Martin, playing some excellent drawing bowls, opened up a 5 shot lead at 15 – 10. Pete closed the gap to a single shot at 15 – 16 before Martin pulled away to win 21 – 16.

Congratulations to all our finalists for playing such high-quality matches in quite testing conditions. Thank you too to Sunday’s markers Martin, Barry, Richard F and Claire as well as to Richard F for umpiring. Thank you too to everyone who contributed to our lunches on both days and who came and supported those playing.