Knew I was up against it in this afternoon's two bowls competition. Playing an established A Team player. Same feelings at the finish to when one of the club's best bowlers knocked me out of this competition last August. Could have kicked myself!
Not an ideal lead up to the match. Rushed into Cambridge in the morning to pick up the four hired suits for my son's wedding next weekend. Back home with less than an hour to spare, so a hurried lunch and hurtle down to the club to change. Must allow enough time for a relaxed preparation in future!
Drizzled with rain throughout the match. I took an early lead, neck and neck up to the fifteenth end. My opponent then gained six in three ends to leave me trailing 9-15. Didn't make much headway on that lead over the next few ends. Found myself staring at defeat, 13-20 down.
Then started a comeback, gaining six over four ends to leave me down 19-20 but in the ascendancy. With two good bowls this might be my winning end! At least needed my first near the jack to put him under pressure. And what did I do? Grounded the delivery to bowl short. His rolled to three feet from the jack. Within seconds I'd gone from having the upper hand to being under pressure. My second bowl landed four feet from the jack, the match lost!
So many chances to win. Yard ons which weren't quite strong enough, or were unlucky in their outcome. Final bowls when I was already lying shot which were too strong and missed gaining two rather than one.
Another bit of experience gained the hard way. Here's the scorecard.
Older Post
To 21 shots not 21 ends? It wouldn't have affected the result but if you were playing in our club 2 bowl, the match would have ended after the 19th end.
ReplyDeleteHi GreenHares... We have all variations for different club competitions, for example one is played best of three sets each of 7 ends. But most singles competitions are played first to 21 or 18. As almost demonstrated by my above match, the great bonus is it doesn't matter if your opponent is at 20, so long as you keep scoring you can still win. Amazing how often the player getting to 20 well ahead of his opponent seems to struggle to get the required single to win. Regards, John
Delete