Important win

Club competition match this evening. Two bowls, first to twenty-one. This format reminds me of the gunfight at the OK Corral. No margin for error. First bowl is wide or short, you're in trouble. Get too far behind, you're in trouble. The maxim is to get one close so your opponent's wins are kept to singles. I'm playing one of the Club's top bowlers, so really up for this match. Been thinking about it for over a week. It's his choice of rinks and we're playing on 5, his favourite.

Pretty soon establish a maximum length jack is working for me. I'm counting 'one, two and threeeeee' to ensure the correct length. Staying down and pointing the bowl on its trajectory. Magically getting my bowls within a foot. Five consecutive wins, four with maximum scores of two, and by the eight end I'm 8-4 ahead.

Quickly becomes a battle of weight. As soon as he wins the jack it's a minimum length. So minimum, on several I call for the marker to check. Even have the measuring tape out on one end. Every time just a few inches over the limit.

Not that I'm doing badly on short ends. My opponent mainly has just two ends with the jack before I win back. But it's a rare game of bowls where it all goes one way. With him winning ones and twos, me mainly ones, by the fourteenth end the gap has narrowed to 12-10 to me. I stretch it to 15-10, he pulls back to 15-14. I make it 19-14, then it's back to 19-18. Although he's making a real effort to take the lead, still feel in control since I know I can fall back to that maximum length jack.

And so it proves. On twenty four I'm sitting with one as I deliver my last to win. Just inches too short! But end twenty-five and the jack just two yards from the ditch, I put two bowls close to win 22-18.

Certainly one of the best performances of the year, and one of the most important wins. And my likely opponent in the next round? Our two times English National Two Bowls Champion. Now there's a match to savour! Here's this evening's scorecard.