Ladywell played their first John Collyer League match of the season on Tuesday May 16th at the green in Ladywell Fields against last year's league champions, Southwark Sports. And in perfect bowling conditions, it was a closely fought contest.
The format in the John Collyer League involves three triples matches, each played over 18 ends, with two points to the winning team on each rink and four points for the club that gains the most combined points over all three rinks.
On the first rink, the Ladywell triple of Sally Bryan, Richard Moorhouse and Des Marrett matched the Southwark Sports team in the early stages and had a narrow 4-3 lead after five ends, before opening up a gap of three points. But the away team fought back, only for Ladywell to pull away again. So, at the break after nine ends, Ladywell had the lead by 8-6. It was a similar story after the break, with Ladywell stretching their lead to 12-7, only for the Southwark Sports team to reel them in again. And with one end to play, Ladywell's lead had been reduced to one point. The closeness of the contest was reflected in the final end, when Southwark Sports gained the single point they needed to tie the match 13-13, meaning each club gained one league point.
The second rink saw the Ladywell triple of Slawek Rutkowski, Norman Lewis and Phil Welch get off to a very slow start and after five ends, Southwark Sports had a commanding 9-2 lead. But at this point, the Ladywell team got into their stride, gaining ten shots in three ends to take the lead 12-9 and despite Southwark Sports gaining two points in the ninth end, Ladywell had a narrow one-point lead at the break. The second half of the match saw the away team take a narrow lead, only for Ladywell to peg them back. So, with two ends to play, Southwark Sports had a two-point lead, but the Ladywell team played an excellent 17th end, gaining three shots to lead by 19-18 going into the final end. This proved to be the tightest end of the match, with the shot changing hands a number of times. With one wood to play, Ladywell were holding a single shot. But their opponent's final wood took out the Ladywell shot, leaving Southwark Sports with two shots and the win by 20-19.
On the third rink, Ladywell's team of Ian Bradford, Howard Smith and Mark Simmons started excellently, with four shots on the first end. And after six ends, they had a solid 10-3 lead. But the Southwark Sports team came back strongly and at the break after nine ends, they had taken a narrow 11-10 lead. After the break, although Ladywell fought hard, the Southwark Sports triple just kept their noses in front, and after 15 ends, they were leading by 16-15. It looked like the match was going to be as close as the other two, but the final three ends saw Southwark Sports ease away to win by 25-15.
This meant the overall score was 58-47 to Southwark Sports - a result that didn't really reflect how close all three matches had been. So, the visitors took four points for the overall win, plus five points for two wins and a draw across the three rinks, with Ladywell picking up a solitary point for all their efforts.
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