Page 37 - Autumn 2012

Page 37:Layout 1 14/10/2012 13:25 Page 1

BRIEF LIVES 37
BRIEF LIVES

It was a huge shock to everyone when the death of Alan
Thornhill was announced at the early age of just 50. Alan was a
very committed bowler and appeared in the magazine on a num-
ber of occasions either in holiday tournaments or playing short
mat in Cheshire. Our thoughts are with his family and particularly
with his wife Julie.
It is also with great sadness that the death of Sheila Keal
has been announced. Sheila featured in the last issue of Short
Mat International and my particular memory of Sheila was playing
in one of the very best singles final I have ever seen on one of
my bowling holidays.

The second session was the reverse of the first with Essex winning it 10-8 on points and
86-66 on shots to level the match. The best result of this session for Norfolk was a 14-3 win
for Alice Payne, Betty Cox & Geoff Payne. The first session pairs & triples came back out
for the third session of the day and Norfolk took the lead again with a 12-6 points win. Kerry
Greenacre & Selwyn Goldsmith again tormented the opposition producing a 20-5 win while
Margaret Poynter & Pauline Wilson won their pairs game by 12-5.
This left Norfolk going into the fourth session defending a 30-24 lead but disaster struck
as they suffered a 13-5 points defeat leaving Essex leading by 37-35 on points. Norfolk’s
only wins came from Liz Mason, Billie Barker & Melvyn Barker who won 10-6 in the triples
while Alan Gower was joined by Selwyn Goldsmith in the pairs to produce an 11-9 win. The
penultimate session was drawn 9-9 on points although Norfolk scored 91 shots against 84.
Margaret Poynter & Pauline Wilson scored their third straight win of the day, an ex-
cellent 19-6 result, while Kerry Greenacre & Selwyn Goldsmith also completed a hat-trick
of wins by 15-6. After two defeats Roy Seeley, Janet Pinchen & Rex
Cox collected two points with an 11-4 win and Doreen Stearman &
Sheila Bragg scored their second win by 14-8. With Essex Friends
leading by just 46-44 on points the final session was crucial but un-
fortunately for Norfolk they suffered some of their worst defeats of
the day as the match slipped away from them.
Essex collected an 11-7 points win but scored 102 shots
against 63 as the Norfolk challenge evaporated. Geraldine Potter,
Wendy Tweed & Graham Tweed won by 8-7, Melvyn Barker’s triple
won by 10-7 while John Mason & John Poynter won by 12-10. Eric By
& Jane Frary drew 10-10 in the pairs but on the other mats Norfolk
went down by 16-4, 10-5, 18-7, 10-3 & 14-4 in a costly series of de- Selwyn Goldsmith
feats leaving Tony Hayes side celebrating victory

RULE POSER
RULE POSER
This problem was raised very recently. The jack was fully in the ditch
and marked as to its position. The shot bowl was a non-toucher just
short of the ditch line but there was a toucher farther up the mat. A
forcing shot pushed the toucher into the ditch and the forcing wood
wicked off the toucher and pushed the non-toucher into the ditch
and it was therefore dead but it did move the jack. The problem that
arose was that the toucher ending up in the ditch was right on the mark where the jack had
been.
As a non-toucher moving the jack meant the jack would normally be replaced but the
dilemma was that to replace the jack the toucher had to be moved but it had ended up on
the jacks mark quite legitimately. So what would you have decided?