Ladywell faced Dulwich Park in their latest John Collyer League (JCL) bowls match on Wednesday 14th August - and the result went down to the wire.
With two points for winning on a rink and an extra four points for the winning club on overall scores, every shot counts in JCL matches. And the first rink saw a closely fought contest, with the Ladywell triple of Robert Dunn, Steve Marlow and Skip, Bernie Jermin holding their own in the opening exchanges. After seven ends, the two teams were tied at 5-5, but Ladywell gained a three-shot lead on the eighth end and went into the break after nine ends with a narrow 8-6 lead. After the break, the Dulwich Park team immediately fought back, gaining two on the 10th end to tie the match once again. Ladywell hit back, with a two-shot advantage on the 11th end, but a run of four ends without scoring saw them facing a 13-10 deficit with just three ends to play. They cut the Dulwich Park lead to one on the 16th end, but the match swung their way on the penultimate end, when they gained five shots to take a 17-13 lead, And despite Dulwich Park gaining a shot on the last end, the home team ran out winners by 17-14.
The second rink saw a far more one-sided contest. The Ladywell triple of Merlin Ramdawar, Alvin Nelson and Skip, Marion Edwards started off with a one-shot lead on the first end, but then their opponents got into their stride, denying them scores on the following five ends, so by the halfway point Dulwich Park had opened up an 11-3 lead. This trend continued after the break, with the visitors winning six of the nine ends in the second half, to gain a convincing 23-7 win.
This left Ladywell with an overall deficit of 13 points, so it was up to the third rink to gain the win that the club needed. The Ladywell team included Tracy Umney, playing her first competitive match for thew club, alongside Terrie Sibley and Skip, Phil Welch. They started strongly, with three shots on the first end. But their opponents hit back, with four shots over the next three ends to take a narrow lead, by 4-3. But the following five ends leading up to the break saw Ladywell scoring heavily and gaining 14 shots to their opponents' one, so the home team were leading 17-5 at the halfway point. The Ladywell triple continued their excellent play after the break, gaining four shots on the 11th end to take a 21-6 lead. And after 16 ends, they had a 26-10 lead, so it looked like they might be able to turn the overall scores around and gain the extra four league points for Ladywell. But their Dulwich Park opponents rallied, gaining five shots over the final two ends, so the final score was 26-15 to Ladywell.
This meant the overall match score was 52-50 in Dulwich Park's favour, with Ladywell gaining four points and Dulwich Park six.
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