Turned on one end

Men's Fours league match this evening, away to Eynesbury C. They're a point ahead of us but we've got a game in hand (reckon the league table is wrong showing two games in hand). So an important match.

Eynesbury green is one of the most difficult to find, hidden some distance down a narrow lane. Been careful to ensure all our players know how to find it. But we're still short of one player at start time. Wait the allowed 15 minutes. Fortunately he arrives just in time.

Looks a bit grim early on. We're losing on all three rinks. I'm skipping rink 2. My players are bowling far too many short. When my turn comes it looks mission impossible, a protective wall of bowls some way from the jack. Nevertheless we're picking up singles. Not enough to make up for the four dropped on end three. Their skip is getting a few lucky wicks.

Another four dropped on end ten and we're really looking lost, 4-13 down. But we string three good winning ends together to pull it back to 12-13. Then the critical end fourteen arrives. We're sitting with five as their skip plays his last bowl. There's no easy way through for him, but remarkably he squeezes through to take shot. From five up to one down. Drat!

We struggle on to keep the margin as low as possible and end losing 17-22. If we'd won five on end fourteen the score would have been 22-21 to us! We lose on rink 1 14-23, win on rink 3 22-13. So a points loss 2-5. End fourteen cost us three points. We would have won 5-2!

Since top club Brampton B didn't have a match this evening, we've now got the same points as them but are ahead on bowls difference. Eynesbury C are now top by four points, but they don't have a match next week. We're playing Eynesbury D next week at home. They're in the bottom three. So there's a chance we may go top of the division after next week! Here are the scorecards.