Ladywell and Southwark Park played a close-run Ron Hams Cup Round Robin match on Wednesday 28th June at Ladywell's green in Catford.
The Ron Hams Cup format involves singles, pairs and triples matches, with the winning club in each match gaining two points and a further four points on offer for the overall winner on aggregate scores.
Ladywell's triple of Sally Bryan, Norman Lewis and Skip, Richard Moorhouse got off to a decent start and after four ends, the scores were tied at 3-3. But the following four ends saw a big swing towards the Southwark Park team, as they went on a scoring run that saw them gain a total of 16 shots, including seven shots on the sixth end. And although the Ladywell triple pulled three back on the ninth end, they went into the break trailing 19-6. The visitors extended their lead after the break to 22-6, before Ladywell cut the deficit with a score of four on the twelfth end. But the gap proved too big to make up and despite gaining two shots on the last two ends, Ladywell's triple ended up on the wrong side of a 27-14 scoreline.
It was a different story in the pairs, where Ladywell's Ian Bradford and Skip, Des Marrett gained a series of threes in the first seven ends to take a 12-5 lead. The next four ends saw their opponents gain a single shot each time, before Ian and Des gained seven more shots in two ends to go 19-9 up with seven ends to play. They received a scare on the 17th end, when their opponents gained seven shots, to pull back to within four shots of them at 21-17. But the final five ends saw Ladywell gain eight shots to their opponents' two, for a convincing 30-19 win.
This left both clubs with two points and a tight overall scoreline of 46-44 in favour of Southwark Park. So, the singles match would decide the overall winners.
After conceding a single on the opening end, Ladywell's Mark Simmons got into his stride, picking up a three and a single to lead 4-1. The players then exchanged gains over the next three ends, before Mark gained the upper hand, scoring on five consecutive ends to take a 12-4 lead. But his Southwark Park opponent quickly hit back, gaining five shots on the next two ends to reduce the deficit to 12-9. Again, Mark pulled away, only for his opponent to peg him back, so after 17 ends, the score was 16-13 in Ladywell's favour. The next two ends saw Mark take a total of four shots, meaning he just needed one more for a win to take the singles and the overall match for Ladywell. But his opponent once again pulled back, gaining four shots on the following three ends to be, once again, within three shots of Mark. But on the 23rd end, Mark gained the single shot he needed for a 21-17 victory.
This not only meant that he'd gained two points for Ladywell, but it also took the final overall score to 65-63 in Ladywell's favour, giving them eight points and Southwark Park two.
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