Pointless practise

Managing to sneak in a bit of practise this evening before tomorrow's big final, took it as a good omen that the sky filled with gold as the sun set over the clubhouse. Was it a sign of gold tomorrow?

Wish I'd never bothered with the solo session. Was pointless in more ways than one. Wasn't able to get much practise on rink 1 (our rink for the final) since someone was already on there. And for the first time in six weeks I got a minus score, that is I bowled more short bowls than I got near to the jack (for the rules on solo practise click here). Too embarrassed to post up the scorecard, but if you really want to see the whole sorry saga in detail click here.

What went haywire was not the number of short bowls. They were about the same as the previous four practise sessions. It was the low number of bowls within one metre of the jack that really let me down. A paltry 18 out of 72 bowls. I've only ever got less than that once before, way back in July. Just couldn't get the line right. Seemed to have forgotten to pick an aiming point on the far side of the rink. What was even worse was the low number of ends where I got two or more bowls near the jack. Just three ends... a third of what I got in the last practise session and a sign of real danger.

At least I did twig the problem towards the end, as well as seeing the benefit of a much smoother delivery. And when, as dusk set and I managed to get a quick four extra ends on rink 1, was getting a much better line. So I'm desperately digging two positive things from the session...

1. If I was due a bad bowls session, at least I've got it over before the final, and
2. I've remembered the importance of fixing an aiming point at the far end of the rink and delivering the bowl smoothly.

Puzzle is, how on earth could I forget such a basic thing as how to fix the right line? For a game that seems really simple, it's amazingly complex to become good at bowls!

Need all the help I can get tomorrow, so the Orange Socks of Success will be putting in an appearance for tomorrow's final... though the temperature forecast is so low for tomorrow afternoon, might have to wear them on top of my thick woolly socks. Hopefully they won't be the only gold I'll be seeing tomorrow.