Page 26 - SMI Winter 2016 - 2017

Page 26:Layout 1 23-Dec-16 9:53 AM Page 1

26

From Brian McGivern
From Brian McGivern

When Herts met Bucks
When Herts met Bucks
Buckinghamshire may have moved a few hundred yards to the new bowls hall in High
Wycombe but the home side look as though they will be just as hard to beat in their new home
ant Handy Cross IBC. In a tough opener to the 2016-17 ICC competition, the stand out per-
formers for Hertfordshire were in the singles discipline but couldn’t halt the march of Bucking-
hamshire, who won 27 - 13
The opening session saw the Singles and Pairs players in action. Michael West started
things off for Herts with an impressive 15-10 win. Falling behind 1-7 after five ends, Michael
dominated the rest of his game, scoring on eight of the remaining ten ends. Alan Hare of Letch-
worth had his first outing in the singles discipline. He didn’t disappoint, just missing out on an
opening win. Scores were tied after 5 ends. A brief flurry of scoring gave the Bucks player the
edge at 11-7. Alan bounced back to take the lead for the first time with two ends to play but in
a tense finale, the home player poached two singles to take the points 12-13.
Pauline Taylor & Jeanette Gayler dropped 1 shot on the opening end of their pairs game
and after that, it was all Hertfordshire. Pauline and Jeanette romped home 22-6. In the other
pairs game, Audrey Fowler & Tony Gayler led up to the two thirds point, at one stage being 5
shots ahead. However, the Bucks duo found their form, finishing 10-18 winners. This left both
teams on 4 points each.
The second session saw the Triples and Fours entering the fray but this ended in a white-
wash for Herts as Bucks won all four games. Jill Oakes, Peter Griffiths & Brian McGivern scored
on only four ends and despite restricting their opponents to mainly singles, lost 5-14. Adrianne
West, Margaret Hare & Mary Chadd held their own for five ends and were drawing 3-3. They
too could manage only four scoring ends and went down 7-16.
Winning four ends seemed to be the order of the day and in the Fours John Taylor, Roy
Duke, Robin Quarterman & Brian Fowler lost 4-12. Cherry Nolan, Graham Yates, Margaret
Regan & Ted Nolan led after six ends and were level after eight but couldn’t score again and
lost out 8-12. With Buckinghamshire taking all 8 pts, At the halfway stage Buckinghamshire
were comfortably ahead at 12 points to 4 but Hertfordshire held the shots advantage in both
the pairs and singles disciplines.
The third session was the reverse singles and pairs games. Michael West took maximum
points from his day’s work, winning his second game 21-15. A maximum 4 shots on the fourth
end set the trend. His opponent did get close, narrowing the lead to just 3 shots with one end
to play but Michael finished the game emphatically with 3 shots. Alan Hare showed he is a
quick learner in the singles and leapt out to a 9-3 lead.