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On Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th, the Club held the finals of the season-long Knockout Competitions. Apart from the Ladies' and the Men's Championships, all the Knockout Competitions are mixed gender and handicapped.
On Saturday morning, the Married Pairs or Partners final was played between Gill & Maurice Robins and Jo & Dave Wilson. This was a repeat of the 2018 final and the result was the same with Gill & Maurice coming out on top. Mind you, the Wilson's had to give their opposition an 8 shot lead because of handicap differences and over the eighteen ends did well to close the gap, only going down 17-14.
On the next rink the 3 Wood Singles was played out between Kevin Currill and Kevin Browne who was defending his title. Browne had a handicap of 2 over Currill so needed to get to 23 to win whilst Currill only needed 21. The game was fairly even to the sixteenth end with the score being 10-10. Browne then took what looked like a commanding lead at 18-10 but Currill fought back and won eight of the next ten ends to win with a score of 21-21.
There was only one final played in the afternoon which was probably just as well as by this time the temperature was at least 30deg. C. The game was 91-Up which is when the four closest bowls to the jack score, 4, 3, 2 & 1 respectively. The final was played between Dave Wilson and Kevin Browne and with Dave having the higher handicap, he needed to score 97 to Kevin's 91. Kevin took an early lead over the first few ends but after Dave levelled the score at 25 all, he took command to reach the penultimate end with a score of 96-84. Kevin had one last chance to move the jack back which would have seen him win but he couldn't find the accuracy needed and Dave won the game.
The Sunday opened with somewhat cooler weather and the morning games were the 4 Wood Singles with Norman Daniells versus Dave Wilson and the 4 Wood Pairs with Kevin Browne & Kevin Currill versus Romy Painter & Peter Falle.
The 4 Wood Pairs was dominated by the two Kevin's and although Romy and Peter battled hard, Kevin Currill in particular was on form, always managing to snatch a good result with his last wood. The two Kevin's won with a score of 26-8, finishing in much damper weather than the previous day.
The 4 Wood Singles competition started off fairly evenly with Dave taking the lead on the eighth end at 6-5. Norman then had a run of five ends scoring 2 shots an end and, although Dave fought back to only be 14-15 down, Norman won through with a score of 21-14.
The afternoon saw the prestigious Ladies' Championship between Gill Robins and Joan Edwards and the Men's Championship between Kevin Currill and Dave Wilson.
The Ladies' match saw last year's winner Gill, also last season's Champion of Champions, defending her title but Joan put up a very strong fight. There was nothing to choose between them after twenty-two ends with the score level at 17-17. However, Gill then took control over the last three ends to win 21-17.
The Men's game was less thrilling. Kevin carried forward the form he had shown all weekend and dominated play to beat Dave by 21-6.
After a short break, Gill and Kevin played the Champion of Champions final over 10 ends. After eight ends the score was tied 4 all but Gill put up a short jack on the ninth end and suddenly lost her line to see Kevin take all 4 shots. Although Gill pulled back 1 shot on the tenth end, it was too late and Kevin finished off a fine weekend by becoming the Club's new Champion of Champions.
All finals were well supported by the attendance of Club members which was appreciated by all the competitors. Members can see more photos of the day in the Members' Gallery.
Addendum
Partly because of a holiday commitment and partly because of scheduling issues, the 2 Wood Pairs competition didn't take place at the weekend but instead, on the following Thursday afternoon. Steve Sullivan and Peter Menhinick (in his first season as a bowler) were up against the pairing of Dave Wilson and Kevin Currill (Men's Championship finalists of course). Steve and Peter did themselves proud but couldn't match the accuracy of Dave and Kevin who came away with the victory.
