Winter League Report – Sunday, 21 October

Author: D Gordon

A healthy contingent of VPBC members attended the opening matches of the Winter league staged at Freshfield Bowling Club on Timms Lane today (21 October). One or two were noticeably worse for wear after over-indulging at the awards party the previous evening, particularly me to be honest. My attempts to persuade Mr Burgess to step in as captain today fell on deaf ears, so I dragged myself out of bed and drove towards Formby feeling (and looking) pretty awful.

The first match saw John Ashcroft & Morris Cunliffe of the VPBC ‘A’ team paired against the Mountfords of the VPBC ‘B’ team. The ‘A’ team pairing raced into an 11-0 lead with a couple of big scoring ends proving costly for Sue & Allen. The Mountfords staged an impressive comeback however, recovering to 13-16 before eventually succumbing to a 15-21 defeat in a rain-affected game.

The second of the two matches saw Gary Burgess & Paul Crummey (‘A’ team) pit their wits against Janice Hobson & Ted Morrell (‘B’ team). The early exchanges were pretty even, the first two ends yielding 6 chalks shared between the two teams. As the game progressed, the ‘A’ team started to pull away with some excellent play on what is undoubtedly one of the trickier greens in the local area. A sequence of three singles in the latter stages enabled the ‘B’ team to reach double figures, with the ‘A’ team eventually running out 21-10 winners, claiming 2 points (1 for each win) and an additional bonus point for winning the match aggregate 42-25.

Next fixtures: Saturday, 27 October @1pm
Victoria Park ‘A’ v Freshfield Natterjacks
Victoria Park ‘B’ – NO FIXTURE