Ladywell Captain loses tight match in Kent Bowls knockout competition

Ladywell's Club Captain, Phil Welch played his first round match in the Kent Unbadged Singles bowls competition away at West Wickham on Friday 30th May. And in a closely-fought two-hour match, he couldn't quite gain the victory he needed to progress to the next round.

The match was played on a warm evening on a pristine green at West Wickham and both players struggled to cope with the fast surface in the early stages. Phil's opponent, Mark Jackson of West Wickham edged the first end with a single shot, before Phil claimed four shots on the second end to take a three shot lead, olnly for Mark to hit back with three on the third end to tie the scores at 4-4.

Both players soon settled down, leading to a seesaw match where one player took a narrow lead, only for their opponent to square things up again. A series of single shot wins meant that after 17 ends, there was still nothing to separate Phil and Mark, with the scores at 12-12. But the following two ends saw the match swing in the home player's favour, when Mark gained three shots on the 18th end, and followed this up with another three shots on the 19th end, to take an 18-12 lead.

With the winning target of 21 shots in sight, it looked like it was all over for Phil, but he once again hit back on the 20th end, gaining four shots to cut the deficit to 18-16. The following two ends saw Mark stretch his lead to 20-16, which meant he needed just one more shot to secure the victory. On the 23rd end, however, with each player having one more wood to play, Phil was holding three shots. But Mark's final wood took the jack to bring the win in sight, and despite a valiant effort by Phil with his last shot, he missed the jack by a whisker, which gave Mark a 21-16 win.