Dulwich Park v Ladywell - Ron Hams Cup bowls match report

Ladywell gained a much needed first victory of the season away at Dulwich Park in a Ron Hams Cup Round Robin bowls match on Wednesday 28th May.

After a disappointing start to the season following two defeats in the John Collyer League, Ladywell returned to action with a Cup match away at Dulwich Park. The format for the Ron Hams Cup involves a single, a pair and a triples match played on the green at the same time, with the winning club getting 2 points for each win on a rink, and a further four points going to the club with the highest overall score.

In the singles match, Ladywell Club Captain Phil Welch returned to the scene of a 21-3 win in the same competition a year ago. This year's match started solidly, with both players scoring early doors, so the socres were tied at 2-2 after three ends. But then Phil gained a significant advantage on the fourth end, gaining a maximum four shots. His Dulwich Park opponent cut the deficit to 6-4 over the following two ends, but then Phil got into his stride over the following five ends, gaining three shots on both the 10th and 11th ends to move into a commanding 17-4 lead. And although his opponent gained a shot on the 12th end, Phil hit back with another score of three shots and then the decisive final shot on the 14th end, to take a comfortable win by 21-5.

The pairs match was a far tighter affair, with the Ladywell pair of Terrie Sibley and Skip, Steve Marlow taking a two-shot lead over the first two ends, only to be pegged back with a score of three shots to the home pair on the third end.

Both pairs exchanged shots over the following few ends in the 18-end match, and at the break after nine ends, the Dulwich Park pair had a slight 9-8 advantage. After the break, it was the same story, with the lead changing hands a number of times. First Terrie and Steve went ahead 9-8, only for the Dulwich Park pair to gain four shots on the 10th end for a 12-9 lead. They extended this to 13-9 on the following end, but the Ladywell pair fought back with a score of four shots on the 13th end to tie the match at 13-13. The following three ends finally saw the match swing in Ladywell's favour, with Terrie and Steve gaining four shots to earn a 17-13 lead with two ends to play. Dulwich Park pulled one shot back on the penultimate end, so the match hinged on a tense final end. With Steve o the mat with the final wood in his hand, Dulwich Park were holding four shots. But he managed to get among them, cutting the deficit to one shot, meaning that Ladywell had won the pairs match by 17-15.

In the triples match, the Ladywell team of Merlin Ramdawar, Sally Bryant and Skip, Howard Smith started slowly, conceding four shots on the first end. But they soon rallied, gaining four shots of their own over the following two ends, to tie the scores at 4-4. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on their side and the Dulwich Park team scored on the following nine ends without reply, so by the 12th end, they'd built a commanding 18-4 lead. At this stage, it was looking like the overall win could be heading to Dulwich Park, but the Ladywell triple finished the match strongly, gaining six shots to their opponents' three, so the final score was 21-10 to Dulwich Park, but that mini fightback by Merlin, Sally and Howard meant it was Ladywell who gained the overall win by 48-41.

This meant it was a positive start to the Ron Hams Cup campaign for Ladywell, winning the first of their six Round Robin matches.