On Saturday 23rd May, Ladywell welcomed local Lewisham rivals, Francis Drake Bowling Club in a friendly bowls match that was only settled on the very last end.
On a perfect afternoon for bowls, the green in Ladywell Fields was the venue for a very close match across three mixed triples rinks. Ladywell took the opportunity to introduce some newer members to competitive matches, as well as giving two members the opportunity to Skip for the first time.
On the first rink, the Ladywell triple of Sofia Denereaz (playing her first competitive match), Slawek Rutkowski and Skip, Phil Welch, got off to a good start, gaining a shot on each of the first two ends. But on the third end, their opponents got on the scoreboard with an impressive score of six. This setback didn't unsettle the home team, who struck back with a score of five on the next end to take a slim lead, 7-6 after four ends. The Ladywell team built on this advantage over the next few ends, so at the break after nine ends, they'd built a 13-9 lead. After the break, the Ladywell triple extended their lead to 15-10 after 12 ends, before the visitors rallied with gains on three successive ends to tie the score at 15-15 with just three ends to play. But the match swung on the 16th end, when the home team picked up three shots to take an 18-15 lead. And with both teams picking up a single shot over the final two ends, the match ended with a home victory by 19-16.
The second rink saw another tight game, with the Ladywell triple of Merlin Ramdawar (playing her first competitive match), Terrie Sibley and new Skip, Ian Bradford making an impressive start, with a lead of 5-1 after the first four ends. The next two ends saw big gains for both teams, with Francis Drake gaining five in the fifth end to take a one-point lead, before Ladywell struck back with a score of four on the following end to retake the lead, 9-6. But the visitors fought back again, to take a 13-10 lead into the break after nine ends. Despite Ladywell pulling back to within one point on the 10th end, another gain of five for the visitors on end 11 gave them a commanding 18-12 lead, which they extended to 19-12 on the following end. And, despite a spirited comeback by the Ladywell team, the visitors eventually won by 21-17.
This meant the overall match result rested on the third rink, where the Ladywell triple of Christian Denereaz, Robert Dunn and new Skip, Sally Bryan, started off slowly, losing a shot on each of the first three ends, before getting on the scoreboard qith one shot on the fourth end. In fact, by the sixth end, the Ladywell team had turned the tables on the visitors, taking a narrow 4-3 lead. This seemed to spark the visiting team into life, and with gains of two, two and one over the final three ends before tea, they went into the break 8-4 ahead. The first four ends after the break saw another turnaround in this closely-fought match, as the Ladywell triple gained 11 shots to the visitors' two, giving the home team a 15-10 lead. But despite Ladywell gaining a further shot on the 14th end, once again, the Francis Drake triple fought back. And with one end to play, Ladywell had the slimmest of leads - 16-15. This meant the overall match score was tied, so the winner of the final end would decide the overall result. And unfortunately for the home triple, it was the visitors who gained three shots on the final end, to win the match by 18-16.
This meant that after three closely fought contests over a total of 54 ends, Francis Drake had gained a narrow overall victory by 55-52.
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