In a very busy Tomkins Park we hosted Waddesdon for a friendly match consisting of 4 Triples. With the match falling during the Coronation weekend we found ourselves playing in amongst the celebrations in the arboretum. This created a great atmosphere but did cause problems with communication as the band was literally the other side of the hedge around the green.
We were very fortunate that the match was played in the sunshine as the previous day had been non-stop rain and the Bank Holiday Monday (as I am writing this) does not look much better.
In a very close game, at the half time tea break Winslow were not losing on a single rink and held a narrow 7 shot lead and I feared the usual second half turnaround! Sure enough by the end of the match Waddesdon had won on 3 rinks with Winslow only winning on one.
Fortunately our 1 winning rink did so by such a margin that it more than offset the scores on the losing rinks to give Winslow another win. Well done and thanks to Roger S, Sarah and Cliff. The final score was 63:55 to Winslow.
I have already mentioned our highest (only) winning rink but special mention should also go to the rink of Sheila W/Victor, Roger P and John Gilbey who fought back from 5 shots down to only lose by 1 and the rink of Rosie, John Jeacock and Len who lost by just 2 shots having been 5 behind with only 3 ends remaining.
With our wining margin being only 8 shots these 2 come backs were, in their own way, just as important as the big win on Cliff's rink and show the importance of fighting to the end as every shot counts in the overall total.
The eagle-eyed amongst you would have spotted that one of our Triples had 4 players (see Sheila/Victor above). We did not play a “Rink” but split the match with Sheila W playing the first 9 ends and Victor playing the last 9. This is something that I am very happy to do in friendly matches so if you would like to play in a game but feel that 18 ends is to many for you then please put your name down to play and let me know and I will “pair” you up with another player so you can play half the game each.
I would like to thank John T for not only being on standby as our reserve but actually turning up to play if required.
Thanks to John J for running the bar, Len, Sarah, Victor and Sheila for the refreshments and to all those to turned up early to help set up the green.
Special thanks go to Roger P and Victor who managed to get the green cut on the morning of the match. Quite some achievement considering the rain the day before and I for one certainly appreciated it as the green would have been very heavy if it had not been cut.
Our crowds seem to be growing week by week. Of course this week it was helped by the activities in the park and we had many members of the public watching over the hedge but I noticed at least 3 prospective members, and a former member, come to see us and we were also supported by Kay and Dorothy (I'm sorry if I have missed anyone else that was in attendance).
Thanks and well done to everyone involved in another enjoyable afternoon of bowls
Jef Cawdell
Captain