Week 10 - Cheetham Hill B.C. - June 11th

Week 10 – Cheetham Hill B.C. – June 11th

Halleleujah!!! Hollinhurst is back to its best, the playing surface is in near perfect condition & following a few days of decent weather, has finally developed some pace. Would it be the great home advantage from days of old, would it be too slick for the Cheetham Hill Boys, or could the injection of speed catch out the Homesters after weeks of sluggish pace??

On a glorious evening, could a slightly depleted Cheetham Hill side with the notable absence of Mark Gibbons, put a spoke in the wheels of Hollinhursts title challenge?? I wheeled out the usual 5 opening blocks in the shape of Duds, J.P. Charlie Cowsill, the much improved Frankie Kay & the battered & bruised Tommy Taylor, still hurting from his mauling at Prestwich last week.

Duds took on the unknown quantity of Alan Ashton, Alan gave a good account of himself, on a Green I doubt he knew existed til last night & pushed Duds all the way & his 11 Chalks don’t really do his performance justice. Duds continues to put in consistent performances week after week, it is a joy to watch, surely now back to the very best of his form.
J.P. is in a similarly rich Vein of form & disposed of Dave Levy to 6, without having to break sweat. A game Dave will probably have already erased from the memory bank!!!
Charlie’s up & down season was set to continue with a nip & tuck game against another old stager, Eugene Brady. Charlie is his own worst critic & another erratic performance, finally saw him egde Eugene out to 19 in a game that looked to be beyond his reach with his hot & cold form throughout the game, a battling win, all the same.
Frank Kays indifferent form seems to be behind him, with a number of impressive wins of late. Norman Tyson drafted himself into the team at late notice & probably wished he hadn’t going down to 6.
Tommy Taylor dusted himself down, put on his best Flat Cap & came out fighting against Mr Consistency & No2 in the C.H.C.C. averages, Ian Johnson. Tommy took control early on & never looked like losing with a 6 chalk buffer for most of the game, bouncing back off the Canvas to a 21-14 win, well done Tommy, just what you needed.

With a full house & a healthy lead on the Agg, could a repeat of our last home game result be on the cards????!!!! Reality was quickly restored, when Eggy went down to 13 against Roy Mack. Steve is usually at home on the faster surfaces, but he didn’t adapt to the conditions quickly enough & Roy Mack takes no prisoners, beating Steve comfortably.

Thankfully the next 3 blocks went to plan & Wrighty, Razor & the man with the deepest pockets & shortest arms in the North of Manchester (answers on a postcard please, I’ll give you a clue, KB) all won to 15, 7 & 10 against Jim McGrath, Barry Solomons & Colin Weekes respectively.

When I made the draw & with my 100% record in mind, the one person I didn’t want to play was Bernard Bramhall, leading their averages & having scalped me on a number of occasions, I knew I had a game on my hands. With neither of us bowling at our best, the 1st dozen ends saw some indifferent ends & I held a slender 9-7 lead. We finally got the measure of the Green & began to produce some decent woods. Fortunes swung in Bernards favour as he took a lead at the final hurdle & at 20-18 up he conceded no ground when I produced my best bowls of the game only to be struck off when lying 2 & be beaten by a great last bowl, when again lying 2, too go down to 18. All good things come to an end & Bernard got his just rewards with some excellent bowling.

Another solid home performance, well done lads, final score 8 wins to 2 & 199 – 132 for a 11-3 victory.

A rest from League Bowling next week, good luck to all the Hollinhurst Lads in the League Handicap.