Ladywell played HSBC Bowling Club in the semi-finals of the Beckenham, Bromley & District Bowling Association's (BB&DBA) bowls Triples League competition on Friday 23rd August and it turned out to be a very tight match.
The format for the semi-finals, held at HSBC, saw two triples from each club play each other on the same green at the same time, with the winner being the club who scores highest overall when the two scores are combined.
On the first rink, the Ladywell triple of Ian Bradford, Steve Marlow and Skip, Phil Welch, got off to a slow start as their opponents built a commanding 13-1 lead after seven ends.
It was a similar story on the second rink, where the Ladywell team of Merlin Ramdawar, Richard Moorhouse and Skip, Des Marrett were 6-1 down after four ends. But they started to rally, and by the seventh end, they'd reduced the deficit to two shots, with the HSBC triple leading 7-5, making the overall score at that stage 20-6 in HSBC's favour.
On the first rink, the Ladywell team finally got into their stride around the halfway mark in the 18-end match, gaining eight shots between the 8th and the 11th ends, to their opponents' three, making the score on that rink 16-9 to HSBC.
Meanwhile, on the second rink, Ladywell completed an excellent turnaround, winning seven consecutive ends to take a 17-7 lead after 13 ends. With the score on the first rink at 19-9 to HSBC at the same stage, there was all to play for again, with the overall scores tied at 26-26 with five ends to play.
On the first rink, the two teams exchanged shots but, with two ends to play, the HSBC triple had once again extended their lead to 22-10. But the Ladywell team played some excellent woods on the final two ends, gaining four shots on the 17th end and a further shot on the 18th, making the final score 22-15 to HSBC.
This meant that if the Ladywell triple on the second rink could maintain their 10-point lead, Ladywell would be in the final. The 14th end saw their opponents gain two shots, to cut Ladywell's lead to eight. But Merlin, Richard and Des continued to play some fantastic shots over the closing ends, gaining three on the 15th and a single on the 17th end, while only giving away two shots to their opponents. So, they held onto the winning margin they needed, eventually gaining a 21-11 victory.
So, Ladywell won by 36-33 and qualified for the final of the competition, which will be against Orpington on Sunday 15th September, 2pm at HSBC Bowling Club.
Congratulations to all six Ladywell bowlers - and good luck in the final!
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