Laurence and co are playing in the Middlesex Fours at 10.00 am today.  If anyone is around the club area, it’ll be a good game to watch as they take on Mort Mascarenhas’ Four from Herga.  Go, go, go …. or rather draw, draw, draw!

Yesterday we had a close match, as expected, against Hampton led by Kevin Keown.  There was whooping from Rink 1 when Karen drew her bowls near the jack and at one end even Laurence leapt up in the air!  Needless to say Tony O’B and Ann B were equally impressed but kept their feet firmly on the ground.  Great to see the enthusiasm from Karen.   Sometimes we forget the joy and excitement of nailing a bowl or two or three!

With Bob and Audrey being poorly yesterday morning, we ‘retrieved’ Scott who had been on loan to Hampton and ended up with three rinks and a triple.  Gym, Stella S & Ranjani had a slow start but made up a considerable deficit to only lose by 3 shots.  Richard D did help out on one end with a wrong bias!  He wasn’t the only one and I’m sorry I didn’t have enough time to print out some WB certificates before the game!

Andy, Scott, Frances & Lucy stormed away on rink 4 until Richard H’s band of merry men came into their own in the second half of the match.  Andy’s team were top rink, but it was a very courageous fight back from Hampton.

Dawn, Shaf, Steve P & Ray got off to a good start leading 6-0 after 3 ends.  Of course that couldn’t be maintained and it was a pretty close game all the way through until Kevin K nailed a draw bowl and 2 shots putting the Hampton crew 19-18 up after 19 ends.  A tight end followed with the jack moving slightly towards Shaf’s two bowls.  Kevin drew a great bowl leaving Dawn a pretty tricky draw into about 2″.  Confidence. Co-ordination. Control. Courage.  Composure.  I’m not sure which of those five kicked in (or more likely it was just luck to be honest), but Dawn did get the shot, leaving the Captains’ rinks going into the final end 19-19.  Sounds pretty fair and no pressure at all on either Kevin or Dawn to drag their team in for a win!  It was close but it ended with a 20-19 win for CP.  Both Shaf and Ray put the pressure on the Hampton’s front end in the second half of the match, so well done to both of them.

All in all a good morning’s bowls enjoyed by all.  Thanks to Jane for running the bar.  Quite a few hung around to enjoy the odd bevvy or two after the match before beating the traffic through Twickenham before the rugby.

Alas, those who support and/or went to Brentford to watch them play Newcastle were disappointed to find their favourite team 0-2 down playing with only 10 men for most of the match.  Did you agree with the Red Card?   I hope all the other teams you support fared better.   Good win for England in the rugby, although Wales had a fierce fight back.