Week 11 - June 25th - Unionist A - Away

Following last weeks mid-term break for the League Handicap, it was back to the serious stuff & we resumed hostilities against the perpetual thorn in our sides Hopwood Unionist A!!!

Could our stiffest test to-date prove to be our un-doing for the title race & tip the scales in favour of Hopwood & WBC or could we muster a respectable result from what we discovered during practice to be a lightening fast Green??
It quickly became apparent that the Green was a huge home advantage as the homesters scored easily in the early stages of the 1st 5 games. Hollinhurst struggled to adjust to the conditions & trailed across the board despite some decent Woods failing to register on the cards. Slowly the early dominance of the Hopwood lads was eroded as we gained some confidence, but at 10 ends in, we were behind in every game!!!
There was a light at the end of the Tunnel with Kenny B & Frank Kay in particular, rallying with some superb bowling & took a slender lead into the final stages of their games against Paul Wakeling & Brian Hardman. Kenny tried in vain to grasp defeat from the jaws of victory as he fell behind 20-17 but managed to cross the winning line to win by the narrowest of margins. It just wasn’t to be in Franks game despite some excellent bowling, Brian “got the rub of the Green” & Frank was desperately unlucky to lose to 15.
Sadly, in the remaining opening 3 games, the light in the Tunnel was an Express Train heading towards them at top speed!!!! John Pearson, struggled from the off & chased an in-form Barry Holcroft right through the game & ran out second best to 13. At 15-7 down Charlie was looking at a heavy defeat from Nick Kershaw who bowled every mark on the green & showed no quarter to Charlies advancing years!!! But the old campaigner dug deep & produced some vintage Bowls to eventually lie 20 across, a great effort from Charlie who didn’t deserve to be pipped at the post!!!!
Tommy T. eventually began to get a feel for the Green & despite being 6-0 down, managed to draw level at 12 across against Mark Heselwood. With Tommy in the ascendency, was he cruising to a hard fought victory??? Unfortunately just as he engaged top gear, his engine & gearbox seized & all 4 wheels fell off, scoring only once more to lose out 21-13
Battered & bruised from a Hopwood mauling, the 1st half scores didn’t make good reading at 4-1 down & 104-82 down in the Agg, could we gain some respectability from the 2nd 5 games???
The early signs looked encouraging as Eggy, Wrighty & Razor all took commanding leads against Eric Ralphson, Frank Heselwood & Tommy Mellor respectively, to lead 18-11, 18-14 & 20-12 but collectively they all switched off just as they entered the final furlong & somehow managed to limp home to 19, 20 & 18. Great wins all the same & these proved to be the last of our points tally as both myself & Duds came second best (me by some considerable distance!!!) on the night.
I was never in the game against a very impressive Pete Morley (honestly, he was there best player by far???!!!!!) my 3 best woods of the night were promptly struck off the green & I managed to register a meagre 7 chalks on the card.
The Halo that has shone so brightly for Duds so far this season, slipped ever so slightly when he came up against a very determined Terry Fahy. Terry took an early 6-0 lead which was to prove too much of a buffer for Duds to overcome & despite a late rally, lost to 18 on a Green he openly admits is a huge snarling hairy arsed Gorilla on his back & publicly requested to be dropped in all future games at this venue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We licked our wounds & contemplated what could have been a far worse result than losing 6-4 & an annihilation in the Agg of 203 -170 for a final tally of 9-6 to Hopwood. Well done lads, I had mentally set a target of 5 wins, we have to be realistic, they are a bloody good team on a Green which acted as an 11th man for them as the Agg clearly indicates.
Our 1st loss of the season to the team who I am sure will push us hardest in the title race, gladly they are out of our fixture list & with 7 games to go we must quickly return to our previous good form.
Next week Prestwich Cons at home, I'll bring a Pen!!!!????