Shock result!

Men's Fours league match this evening. Playing Hemingford C at their ground. One of the best in the league, they have an amazing verandah on the first floor of the clubhouse overlooking the green. Great view as you're sipping. Since they beat us 7-0 in the first game of the season, be happy with a win on one of the three rinks and two points.

I'm skipping, teamed up with an experienced group of players. We're struggling at the beginning. And with only two bowls per end and a packed head, I'm struggling to get the line. On the fifth end a drive is the shot. Miss with the first, but bang on with my second to knock their two shot bowls out. Three to us and we take the lead.

It's very close throughout the match. Lose count how many drives I play to save an end. The crunch comes on the fifteenth end when the opposition has two close bowls. Hard to get to the jack. My drive looks too narrow but skims past the blocking bowls to hit their shot bowl and push the jack to the back. Three to us!

It's a bit of a knee trembler as we're leading by three from the penultimate end, but they're sitting two up on the last. Fortunately, their skip doesn't change anything and we win by one.

Even better on the other two rinks, where we win comfortably on both. A 7-0 win to us! That should move us a couple of positions up and into the top half of the league table.

Now feel really confident playing drive shots. In fact, seems to be my best shot. Appears the secret to playing skip is not to spoil things if you're holding shot bowls, even better if you can draw for more, but most importantly to play an accurate drive to change a big loss into a gain.

Retired for a tea of jacket potatoes, sausages, beans, and cheese. Here are this evening's scorecards and a satellite view of Hemingford Bowls Club.