Making the leap

County four bowls singles first round fixture this evening at the Royal Oak Bowls Club, Godmanchester. My first visit and another green hidden away at the back of a pub. My opponent is a County player. 

Arrive early to chat to our marker. Sounds like the rink will have some character. Missed a grass cut because of rain, so will be heavy. Rinks five and six used to be allotments. Glad we're on rink four.

In spite of the warning, the green plays straight and true. I'm off to a blinder of a start, line and length good. Leading 6-1 after just three ends.

My opponent then wins six of the next seven ends and I'm losing 7-14. He's playing minimum length jacks, I'm struggling to find the length. A recovery brings me to 17-19 down. But several backhand attempts to get into the head are all played too narrow. Just can't recover on the last end when he's sitting with two.

Come away from the match not dissatisfied. Getting closer to beating County players and making the leap to a new standard.

Most pleasing aspect of the evening? The effectiveness of drives I played. Although one went wide, one of the other three killed the end when he was sitting with two against the jack. Another converted two to him to three to me. And the final drive won a tight end, two to me.

Things to learn? To calibrate my push delivery better for more accurate length, and always bowl to my favourite hand until I've got at least one bowl near.

For a satellite view of the green, click here. Below is the scorecard and current singles matches status.