Southwark Park v Ladywell - Ron Hams Cup bowls match report

Ladywell continued their Ron Hams Cup campaign on Saturday 7th June, with their second Round Robin bowls match, away at Southwark Park.

The Ron Hams Cup matches feature a singles, a pair and a triples match, all taking place at the same time, with two points for the winning club on each rink and a further four points for the club that gains the most shots overall across all three rinks. And with strong winds and rain forecast for the afternoon, the match promised to be a challenging one, with tricky conditions for all the players.

In the singles match, Ladywell's Club Captain Phil Welch got off to a slow start, conceding three shots on the first end. Both players were finding it difficult to find their range on a tricky rink, but after six ends, his Southwark Park opponent was leading 6-2. This was when Phil finally got into his stride, gaining eight shots over the following four ends, to move into the lead by 10-6. His opponent gained a shot on the 11th end to narrow the gap, but Phil won the next three ends, gaining six shots to take a commanding 16-7 lead. Despite conceding three shots on the 15th end, Phil regained the initiative with two shots on the 16th end to lead 18-10. And on the following end, he gained the three shots he needed, to wrap up a 21-10 win, just before the rain set in.

In the pairs match, the Ladywell team of Terrie Sibley and Skip, Steve Marlow started strongly, winning the first four ends of the 18-end match to lead 5-0. The home team opened their account with one shot on the fifth end, only for Terrie and Steve to widen the margin to 7-1, with single shots of their own on the following two ends. And despite conceding three shots over the following two ends, at the break after nine ends the Ladywell team had a 7-4 lead. After the break, heavy rain set in and although the Ladywell pair extended their lead to 9-4, their opponents narrowed the gap to one shot with a gain of four on the 11th end. Steve and Terrie regrouped and pulled away again, gaining four shots over the following two ends to take a 13-8 lead with five ends to play. In heavy rain, the wet conditions were making it difficult for both teams, but their Southwark Park opponents seemed to deal with them more comfortably and they fought back, gaining five shots over the next four ends to tie the scores at 13-13 with the final end to come. And despite the Ladywell team's best efforts, it was Southwark Park who gained the decisive one shot on the last end to win the contest by the narrowest of margins - 14-13.

In the triples match, the Ladywell team of Rob Witter, Merlin Ramdawar and Skip, Howard Smith, took a narrow 4-2 lead after three ends, only to see the tables reversed when their opponents gained four shots on the fourth end to lead 6-4 and then extend that lead to 8-4 over the following two ends. The Ladywell team fought back to cut the lead to two shots at the break, with Southwark Park ahead by 9-7. And with the Ladywell triple gaining two shots over the first two ends after the break, the scores were tied at 9-9. But in heavy rain, it was the Southwark Park team that pulled away, gaining four shots over the following three ends to lead 13-9 with four ends to play. Ladywell gained a shot on the 15th end, but with Southwark Park gaining one shot on the 16th and three on the 17th end, the Ladywell team needed to gain shots to count towards the overall score. And they succeeded by gaining two shots on the final end, to lose by a margin of five shots - 17-12.

This meant that the final overall score was 46-41 in Ladywell's favour, despite losing in two of the three matches. So Ladywell continued their winning run in the competition, gaining six points to Southwark Park's four.