Week 13 - July 16th - Tonge - Home

On a beautiful November evening in July, we welcomed the Tonge Team into the Lions Den!! They say an Animal is most dangerous when it is wounded & after back to back performances which would have warranted the “Hairdryer” treatment from Lord Ferguson, the wounds were still being licked. Could we lift ourselves & restore our dented pride?? Fourteen points from 2 games was way off the target of 10 per game we had set ourselves & with our lead now narrowed to 2 points, a good win was essential to prevent our near neighbours WBC gaining a psychological advantage as we moved into the last third of the season.

The Green looked very healthy, but after days of biblical proportion rain, the speed wasn’t to our benefit & would surely make for a more even contest.

It was very satisfying to see 3 of the 1st 5 pairings flying out of their Blocks to gain commanding leads. Waggy was “on-fire” racing to a 14-0 lead over Syd Hayes who had no answer to Tommy’s Laser guided Woods & he eventually succumbed to a rampant Waggy losing 21-5.

An equally impressive performance by Charlie saw him take a 18-1 lead against Alan Marcroft, who struggled to counter Charlies best performance of the season. Performance of the week, just pipping Waggy, Charlie ran out 21-4 & the omens looked good as normal service seemed to have been resumed!!!!

After John’s horror show in his last game on Hollinhurst, he resumed his recent excellent form, cruising to a 21-12 in over a battling Jim Clare.
The recent collective blip in form seemed a distant memory as Frank Kay put in another comprehensive show. Vinnie Greenhouse could only trail in his wake as Frank ran out a comfortable 21-12 winner.

The clean sweep in the 1st half would prove elusive as Tommy Taylor struggled to match the form of an impressive Alan Dunford & the 11-21 result flattered Tommy who had a howler, one to quickly erase from the memory bank!!!!!

All looked well as we moved into the second half of the game, but Tonge had saved there best for last with a strong second 5. We all knew they were potential Banana skins & had to ensure the earlier good work wouldn’t be in vain.

Mr Consistency, the legend that is Mr Kenny Bowles immediately found one huge Banana skin as he trailed a dogged Donny Wilkinson 10 nil. Donny’s pressure was relentless as Kenny bemoaned the speed of the Green & had nothing in reserve to ignite one of his famous comebacks, eventually going down to 11. A dent in Kenny’s flawless record so far this season, but Donny was just too good on the night.

Wrighty was up against the old-stager Joe Connor, Dave showed no concession to Joe’s seniority, as he put on a masterclass to lead 16-4 & eventually showed some mercy as he took his foot off the Pedal & Joe made double figures to go down 21-12

I took on an unknown quantity in the form of Dave Connor, at 16-4 up I should have been looking at my best win of the season. Dave struggled over the Crown but eventually found a mark to his liking & rattled up 12 chalks. Duds was up against Ricky Jones & having recently slipped to No2 in the averages, he would need a good win to put him back in his rightful position, Les Toth might disagree!!!??? Duds was still smarting from his recent visit to the Waterloo, (ask him, I daren’t put it in writing) & Rick had little defence, going down to 8.

With only Eggy left on the Green, the possibility of eight winners was in the balance as he had Darren Wardle to contend with. Eggy had his hands full, Darren is Tonges most consistent Bowler by some margin, but Eggy made a great start to lead 9-1. Darren found his length & pulled it back to 11 across. It was now game on as they stood chin to chin & traded blows, scoring off their opponents blocks. It was anyones game as the scoring went 14 across, 15 across, 16 across, 17 across. Eggy had Darren on a Joe Carr mark in the middle of the Green & was in the driving seat at he edged out 19-17. Darren never to be beaten, replied with 2 chalks off 2 loose woods from Steve & put 2 Jaffa’s up to run out. Steve was gutted to fall again at the last hurdle, a solid battling performance from Darren to grab Tongues 3rd win of the night.

Final score 7-3 & 188 – 126 in the Agg. for a result of 10 - 4½

Double figures again at last, hopefully we can do a similar job against Walmersley next week??