Lakeside IX - June 2015

The week of 22-26 June saw us back on Hayling Island for the 9th time.

As in previous years the Pairs was played over Tuesday and Wednesday Mornings and all of Thursday, while Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings was set aside for the Fours.

Fours
With 17 teams playing just 4 games across 2 nights to find four teams for the Knockout Stage, it is always a bit of a lottery, but you still have to work to get the points, regardless of the opposition. The top 4 teams would play down to find the winners, on Wednesday evening.

And there were exactly four teams who won both of their games, while the best anyone else could manage was one win and one loss. Those 4 teams were Iskett/Cox/Ballinger/Spriggs, Hume/Staines, Drane/Game/Tilbrook/Vaughan and Jordan/Richardson/Sheen.

But not all of them would be able to retain their perfect records as the Drane team would have to play both the Hume and Iskett teams on Night 2. That meant that there was a good chance that someone from the pack of 9 teams on 2 points would end up in the top 4.

However despite the tough draw the Drane/Game/Tilbrook/ Vaughan team showed their quality, winning both of their games to finish first. Meanwhile the Jordan/Richardson/Sheen team also won twice to finish unbeaten. Two wins for Ball/Walker/Evans brought them up to third, while Hume/Staines, despite one loss managed to hang on in fourth, but only then as a result of having three shots less against than fifth placed Frost/Brown.

Semi-Finals
Having already met one another on the previous day it was time for a rematch between the Drane and Hume teams. And having been narrowly beaten, Hume/Staines took their chance at revenge and in a close fought game took revenge to make the final with a 5-3 win.

The other game was not so close, and while it could hardly be said that it was a runaway victory, the Ball team took the led from the first and held on to it. 5-0 up after 4 ends saw the Jordan team on the backfoot all the way through as the Ball team took a 7-2 win to make the final.

Final
Keith & Prim Hume and Tony & Patricia Staines v Harold & Patricia Ball, Mike Walker and Jane Evans
Taking the lead on the first end with a single, Hume soon found themselves behind as they took the jack off on the second end to hand their opponents the lead. The second end also went to Ball, but this time thy did all the work themselves with a 3 to sweep into a 5-1 lead.

It was a good lead, and one that perhaps only needed one more end to nail the game. But Hume fought back immediately to regain all three shots lost on the previous end and reduce the lead to just one shot. The next end saw them level and the momentum was with them. They edged into the lead on the next, but it was a slim one shot lead with the last end still to play.

As the jack got pushed back the final end could have gone either way, but Hume was up with the jack and anything that was short seemed to get pushed up and what was worse for Ball was that the opposition woods somehow managed to manoeuvre themselves in behind the jack. The only way to rescue the end was the perfect draw and it didn't come.

In the end it was a three shot count on the last, but the shots were irrelevant, the game went to Hume as they completed an impressive comeback from being 1-5 down to win 9-5.

Pairs
Day 1 (Tuesday)
With 9 games in total to play across 3 days, the first day is not one that would knock anyone out of the running altogether, but it is a good opportunity to establish yourself. And anyone who could notch up a good set of results on Tuesday would set themselves up nicely to still be playing on Thursday afternoon, when the knockout stages would begin.

And with a good spread of results, the close of Tuesday's play saw just 4 teams with 3 wins out of three, added to which there were another 3 teams who had dropped just one point.

Top of the pile were Peter & Doris Frost who clocked up 32 shots while dropping only 5 as they registered wins of 9-1, 17-2 & 6-2 and just 5 shots behind them were David & Linda Williams (7-2, 13-4 &7-6).

Sitting in third place were Don Poulter & Joan Clark whose 7-6, 10-6 & 7-5 wins gave them 6 points and 24 shots, one shot ahead of Keith & Prim Hume who recorded one 7-4 and two 8-3 wins.

The teams who had finished the day on 5 points were Jim Spriggs & Chris Tilbrook (13-3, 7-4 and 6-6), Tony & Patricia Staines (11-4, 5-5 & 5-4) and David & Margaret Clemmet (5-5, 5-1 & 9-1).

The next 9 teams had dropped just 2 points and made up the rest of the top 16. All they needed to do was to stay where they were to make it out of the Round Robin stage.

Day 2 (Wednesday)
None of the unbeaten teams from Tuesday were able to get through the second day unscathed each one of them lost at least one game.

The stars of the day came from lower down the standings. Five teams won all three of their games to bring themselves into contention. Annette Iskett & Sylvia Cox (9-4, 11-2 & 5-3), Harold & Patricia Ball (7-5, 7-4 & 12-0) and Judith Longman & Eva Rolfe (8-1, 5-2 & 9-8) all brought themselves up to 10 points to share the lead with Don Poulter & Joan Clark and David & Linda Williams.

Meanwhile Peter & Kay Masters (7-6, 9-4 & 5-3) and Robin & Heather Brown (7-5, 7-5 & 7-4) boosted their respective totals to 8 points, having only won once on Tuesday.

So with the top five on 10 points, and in all probability having done enough to qualify, the next best were just a point behind the leaders. They were Jim Spriggs & Chris Tilbrook, David & Margaret Clemmet and Tony & Patricia Staines.

Day 3 (Thursday)
Crunch day, the final 3 Round Robin games for everyone and all to play for.

Again there were 5 teams who won all of their games. Three of those were already in the top 16, Jim Spriggs & Chris Tilbrook (12-2, 12-2 & 6-4) raised themselves all the way up to finish first overall, while Graham & Gaye Swan (8-5, 10-2 & 13-2) and Jim & Margaret Southgate (5-3, 11-3 & 6-3) came up to finish 5th & 9th respectively.

Meanwhile Preston & Jo Gypps (9-2, 16-4 & 14-1) doubled their points tally and moved all the way up from 21st to 10th and having only won 2 of their first 6 games John Ballinger & Paul Daniels (6-4, 13-1 & 6-5) leapt up from 24th to just scrape into 15th place.

The other qualifiers were Harold & Patricia Ball, David & Linda Williams and Annette Iskett & Sylvia Cox (all on 14 points) finished 2nd, 3rd & 4th. On 13 points were David & Margaret Clemmet, Don Poulter & Joan Clark and Tony & Patricia Staines.

The others on 12 points were Peter & Doris Frost, Robin & Heather Brown and Judith Longman & Eva Rolfe. James Jordan & Jan Richardson were on 11 points and the final qualifiers, getting in by just a single shot and ousting 3 other unlucky teams who also finishing on 10 points were Peter & Kay Masters.

Knockout Rounds
Round 1
Graham & Gaye Swan eased their way through with a 12-1 win over Robin & Heather Brown. And it was much the same for Don Poulter & Joan Clark over Preston & Jo Gypps (12-2).

Annette Iskett & Sylvia Cox were all level with Judith Longman & Eva Rolfe until a 5 blasted them into the lead, they won 11-3. A 5 on the 2nd end and a 4 on the 4th saw Tony & Patricia Staines through against Jim & Margaret Southgate (10-5) and it was the same score for David & Margaret Clemmet over Peter & Doris Frost, although they had to come back from 5-0 down.

It was a single shot per end game between Harold & Patricia Ball and John Ballinger & Paul Daniels. But 5 of the ends went to Harold & Patricia to see them through. While James Jordan & Jan Richardson had the best of the second half of their game against David & Linda Williams, winning 8-4.

And in the game between the top and bottom qualifiers? Almost inevitably it was 16th placed Peter & Kay Masters who took a relatively comfortable 8-6 win over 1st placed Jim Spriggs & Chris Tilbrook.

Quarter Finals
Peter & Kay Masters only dropped one end against Tony & Patricia Staines, winning 9-1. And it was the same for James Jordan & Jan Richardson over David & Margaret Clemmet as they ran out 12-1 winners.

There was never much in the game between Graham & Gaye Swan and Annette Iskett & Sylvia Cox, never more than a couple of shots, but the Swans took the last 3 ends to win 5-3. And it was closer still between Harold & Patricia Ball and Don Poulter & Joan Clark. The Balls were 4-0 up, then 6-3 up going into the last end. But Don & Joan saved the game with 3 on the last and take it to an extra end, only for Harold & Patricia to take the extra end to go through.

Semi-Finals
Graham & Gaye Swan led Peter & Kay Masters all the way through their encounter and came safely home with a 9-3 win.

James Jordan & Jan Richardson lost a 4-0 lead as Harold & Patricia Ball came back to go 5-4 in front. But James & Jan bounced back, took the last 2 ends and won 7-5.

Final
Graham & Gaye Swan v James Jordan & Jan Richardson
End 1 – Graham takes shot with his last wood, but James takes it out to take 3.
End 2 – James does it again, this time with his first wood and then fills up the front of the head to keep shot. 4-0.
End 3 – Gaye takes shot with her second and another with her third, but James takes out first one and then the other to take another 3. 7-0.
End 4 – Jan's first two drop close in and James adds to the Swan's woes, but a great last wood from Graham finds a way in to snatch shot. James & Jan lead 7-1.
End 5 – Gaye's first wood nails the jack, but Jan manages to match it. The two woods stay there until the end and it takes a measure to separate them. It goes to James & Jan. 8-1.
End 6 – An untidy end as the jack gets pushed back. Graham takes shot with his first to give them a faint glimmer of hope. 8-2.
End 7 – Graham & Gaye need a full house, but Jan's first wood all but sees to that. The Swans take the end, but it's just a single as James & Jan take a convincing and well deserved 8-3 win.

Many thanks to everyone for another fun week of bowling and for adding another £185 to the money we have raised for East Anglia Air Ambulance.

The final note for the week is a slightly sad one. We arrived here to discover that Warner's are planning to demolish the bowls arena to make way for more accommodation in 2017. That means that it looks as if 2016 will be our 10th and final visit to Lakeside.

Click here for the Full Results

tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
26th June 2015