Southwark Park v Ladywell bowls match report

Ladywell went down to a second consecutive defeat in the John Collyer League on Wednesday 21st May, in a bowls match at Southwark Park.

On the first rink, the Ladywell team of Christian Denearaz, Terrie Sibley and Skip Phil Welch got off to a solid start, edging one shot on the three of the first four ends to take a 3-1 lead. But their Southwark Park opponents hit back with a run of three consecutive winning ends leading up to the break, which meant after nine ends, the home team had taken a 9-4 lead. After the break, the Southwark Park triple maintained their lead, but the Ladywell team looked like they might pull off an unexpected comeback when they gained three shots on the 16th end, leaving the score at 15-11 to Southwark Park. But the home team rallied with single shots on the last two ends to take the match 17-11.

The second rink was a much closer affair, with the Ladywell triple of Robert Witter, Norman Lewis and Skip, Howard Smith gaining four shots on the first two ends, only for their Southwark Park opponents to pick up four shots on the third end to tie the match at 4-4. The lead then changed hands a number of times leading up to the break. First Southwark Park took a two shot lead, only for Ladywell to hit back and move three shots ahead. There was a brief interruption just before the break when the Southwark Park Skip suffered a nasty fall stepping off the green and banged his head, resulting in a reserve player stepping into his place. This didn't seem to affect the home team's game, as they gained a three on the ninth end, which meant the scores were once again tied at 9-9 going into the break. It was the same story after the tea break, with Ladywell going two ahead, only to be pulled back by Southwark Park. After a break of a few ends, Southwark Park's original Skip was able to resume playing and led his team to a three shot lead with four ends to play, only for Ladywell to gain four shots on the 15th end to go 15-14 up. A single gain for Ladywell on the next end meant they had a two shot lead with two ends to play. But then on the penultimate end, the Southwark Park team gained five shots to jump back into the lead by 19-16 and despite gaining a shot on the final end, Ladywell lost a tight match by 19-17.

The third rink saw the Ladywell team of Merlin Ramdawar, Steve Marlow and Skip, Robert Dunn, get off to a slow start, with an 8-0 deficit after just three ends. And despite gaining single shots on the following three ends, they saw their Southwark Park opponents pull away leading up to the break, where Ladywell were trailing by 15-3. The two ends after tea saw the home team extend their lead, gaining another six shots to go 21-3 up. Ladywell rallied with four shots on the next two ends, but their opponents immediately opened up a bigger gap with a further six shots over two ends and despite a slight comeback towards the end of the match, the Ladywell triple eventually lost by 28-11.

This meant Southwark Park had gained a maximum six points for winning all three rinks, plus an extra four points for the overall win, by 64 points to Ladywell's 39.