Ladywell played their first Round Robin bowls match in the Ron Hams Cup on Wednesday 29th May at Dulwich Park and gained a valuable victory.
The Ron Hams Cup format involves a singles, pairs and triples match played at the same time on the same green. With two points for a win on a rink and a bonus four points for an overall win based on total scores, it was all to play for.
In the singles match, played to 21 points, Ladywell Club Captain Phil Welch started off strongly against his Dulwich Park opponent, racing to a 12-0 after five ends, including a maximum four shots on the second end. It looked like his Dulwich Park rival had hit his stride with a shot on each of the next two ends, but Phil pulled away again to lead 20-2 after 11 ends. Despite the Dulwich Park player gaining a shot on the twelfth end, Phil scored 3 on the thirteenth end to gain a comfortable 21-3 victory.
The pairs match saw an equally impressive start from the Ladywell pair of Slawek Rutkowski and Skip, Richard Moorhouse, who were 6-0 up after three ends. But with a total of 21 ends to play, their opponents knew they had plenty of time to turn things around and they gradually started to eat into Ladywell's lead. So, by the break, after 11 ends, the score was 9-8 to Ladywell. This turnaround continued after the break, with the home side gaining eight shots over the 14th, 15th and 16th ends to move into a 19-10 lead. Despite Ladywell gaining a shot on the 17th end, the Dulwich Park pair pulled away again, eventually winning by 24-13.
This meant the fate of the match rested on the triples, where it was Dulwich Park who took an early lead, with five shots on the first two ends. But the Ladywell team of Alvin Nelson, Terrie Sibley and Skip, Marion Edwards, pulled those shots to be all square after five ends. Again, the home side pulled away and again, the Ladywell team hit back to tie the match, with the
scores at 7-7 after seven ends. But around the break, the Dulwich Park triple started to pull away, so after 14 ends, they had a healthy 15-8 lead. But the Ladywell team all played some excellent shots over the next three ends to tie the scores at 15-15 with one end to play. And it was the Ladywell triple who continued their good form, gaining two shots on the final end to take victory by 17-15.
This meant the overall score was 51-42 to Ladywell, giving them eight points to Dulwich Park's two and a good start to their 2024 Ron Hams Cup campaign.
Comments