SULLY Sports Men’s Bowls team visited Millwood on Wed 15th Aug in their latest Munroe Cup fixture, and on a damp, heavy green, which played well, were a little fortunate to muster an aggregate 69-69 draw, as they only won one rink to the hosts’ three.

K Roman’s rink were leading 7-5 at the halfway point (9 ends), and level after 13 ends, but a very strong finish by Millwood, taking the last 5 ends and scoring 12 shots, gave them, for what seemed unlikely for most of the match, an unexpectedly big 21-9 win.

G Brown’s rink were down 2-10 after 5 ends, and 5-14 down at halfway (9 ends), but winning 6 of the next 8 ends, they took the mat on the final end 16-18 down, but Millwood recovered just enough to take the final shot to win 19-16.

Most importantly, the fightback by the Sports rink was important to the overall aggregate position.

A Collard’s rink were on fire winning the first 10 ends, to lead 19-0, and kept the pressure on the hosst right up to the finish, losing only 2 ends throughout, to win handsomely 31-4.

C Coomber’s rink started well to lead 11-3 after 7 ends, but then lost the next 10 ends to be behind 11-25 starting the last end.

With all the other rinks finished, the pressure was on the Sports players, as Millwood were holding a 2 shot advantage in the aggregate score, but with the last wood, Charlie just failed to score the 3 shots required to snatch the aggregate, but did clinch 2 shots to secure a draw, despite a rink loss of 13-25.

Rink Scores:

D Woodfin, D Burbridge, L Adams, K Romans 9-21; A Fitt, M Stafford, A Middleton, G Brown 16-19; P Collier, J Harries, G Currie, A Collard 31-4; R Knight, P Holland,J Kirk, C Coomber13-25.

Saturday, 18th Aug. Sully Sports travelled away, for a PG1 fixture, to Whitchurch Hospital, who are in the mix for promotion to Div 2.

The conditions were damp and overcast, with a very heavy green which, in the main, played reasonably true.

Whether or not the uncertainty, and delay, of the match start time effected the Sports players, it was not until the last quarter of the game that they, in any way, got to grips with the bowling conditions, or the better of the hosts, and by then the game was already a lost cause.

Whitchurch Hospital took all 4 rinks to run up a 85-49 victory and thus 14 points in their quest to get back out of the 3rd Division at their first attempt.

G Brown’s rink had their noses in front 3-2 after 5 ends, but Whitchurch only conceded 4 more ends with some fine bowling, and rattled up a comfortable win 30-11.

B Matthews’ rink were quickly in trouble, being down 1-14 after 9 ends, and, although they won as many ends as their hosts in the rest of the game, they only managed to pull the deficit back by 2 shots, and lost 10-21.

It was a similar story on C Coomber’s rink, which was 1-11 down after 8 ends, and then proceeded to win 9 of the remaining 13 ends, but the home rink managed to restrict the shot count down sufficiently to hold on for a close 15-12 win.

L Romans’ rink had a closely fought game, in another lowish scoring match, with the scores tied 12-12 after 12 ends, and 15-15 after 17 ends.

Critically it was the hosts,, having lost the previous 3 ends, who took control to outscore the Sports 4-1 on the final 4 ends, including a single on the last to take a 19-16 win.

Rink Scores: P Robbins, A Thompson, G Currie, G Brown 11-30; R Knight; D Austin; A Middleton, R Matthews 10-21; M Morgan, M Stafford, A Collard, C Coomber 12-15; P Collier, B Whyman, K Romans, L Romans 16-19.

The Sports’ do not now have a fixture until Wed. 29th Aug, when Rumney are the visitors for a friendly.

With Finals Day looming on the horizon, members are urged to take advantage of this fixture break to play any outstanding Club Cup competitions instead.