Page 11 - Winter 2019 2020 FINAL_Neat

Page 11_Layout 1 15/01/2020 13:30 Page 1

Starting the last end the Heatherlands Triple of Tony Carr, Paul Gough and Ben Riley
were 3-6 down, but a glorious five snatched victory 8-6 at the death. Sam Harvey ran 11
out an 11-6 winner in the Singles and Heatherlands also won the Pairs 8-5. So in their
third final Heatherlands triumphed at last, the first Dorset team to win the Six of the Best, winning
in style with a clean sweep, the first for several years.

Six of Best Runners-up Templecombe
Robert Nevitt, Derek Lemon, Jim Mannell, Sue Smith, Val Beach & Alan Berry

The Keith Buckland Triples
The Triples competition has been renamed in memory of Keith Buckland (“the man with the
braces”), a popular Cerne Abbas player who took up bowls very successfully in his seventies
after his wife died and continued until just before he died in his nineties. The Triples is played
on the Sunday, and although competitive, is usually a less intense day than the Saturday Six of
the Best. Twelve teams play four games each at random, the winner being the team with the
most points. This year’s teams came from Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Devon.
After three rounds Ilchester were the only team on 100%, so just needed to win their last
game to take the trophy for the first time. However, last year’s winners Evercreech and previous
winners Sidbury and Winkleigh were lying just behind in the table ready to take advantage of
any slip up. Winkleigh and Evercreech played each other, Winkleigh stamping their authority on
the match from the start and winning convincingly 16-8. Sidbury put in their bid for the trophy
with an 8-5 win over Ottery St Mary.
Ilchester played their final game against frequent visitors to Cerne over the years, Od-
combe, who are located just over the county boundary in Somerset. Ilchester started poorly 0-
7 down after just two ends, but fought back magnificently to lead 11-8 with two ends to play.
However, they conceded a three on the penultimate end so with the score even, the outcome
depended on the final end.
The other games had finished so the final end was played with all the audience and players
watching. Ilchester were on the jack when the skips came to play but the Odcombe skip missed
knocking them off with his first wood.
Ilchester needed a blocker but though the Ilchester skip bowled a good weight the line was
too tight, so Odcombe still had a chance with their last wood. The Odcombe skip duly removed
Ilchester’s wood to hold two.