Sometimes it's a struggle...

Men's League Triple Competition this evening, so it's four rinks of three players, each with three bowls. We're playing Needingworth from Division 2. The team with the highest total bowls wins.

The green is superb. Lush grass right up to the edges. Not a sign of a bare patch. I learn just two members do the maintenance. No surprise they're at it from dawn to dusk. The love of their task shows.

Bit of a panic an hour beforehand. One of my skips has been bowling in the afternoon and didn't feel too well. Having called all the potential substitutes, there's no joy. The Club is playing another competition match at Papworth this evening and anyone not playing our game is over there. He agrees to play since we can't find a replacement. Move him to play number 2, so he can sit down when not bowling. Make sure he gets loads of TLC.

I'm playing skip with a good lead and a second who is new to the Club and asked for trial. Pretty soon I'm regretting the trial. Too many short bowls. We drop five on the fifth end and never have a look-in thereafter. Easy for a skip to go from hero to zero. Last Thursday I was playing out of my skin, saving or winning ends with drives. This evening it's nothing but drives to make multiple attempts to reduce their three, four or five shot bowls. Generally on target, I'm getting no luck as I knock out just one rather than scatter the group, or find any narrow gap to whizz through. When there's a draw to play it's almost always mission impossible. We finish with a highly embarrassing 24-9 loss.

Even more embarrassing given that for a time our other three rinks were in the lead. We still win one handsomely, draw another and lose the third by some margin. Overall, lose by only sixteen bowls. Against a side one division above us on their home ground, that's not too bad.

Below are the scorecards from this evening. For a satellite view of Needingworth Bowls Club, click here.