ROSE BOWL 2014
Sunday saw an excellent turnout of 31 members taking part in the first club competition of the season. Fortunately, the weather was kind and the Rose Bowl was played for in sunny conditions.
In the top half of the draw, last year’s beaten finalist Barry Coates was looking to go one better and progressed to the semi-final with wins against Pat Jones (21-14), Alan Bond (21-16) and Mark Rowlinson (21-19). Barry’s semi-final opponent was John Stennett, who had enjoyed victories against Ann Burns (21-15), Joe Parker (21-18) and Margaret Langley (21-9). The semi-final was expected to be close and with Barry leading 11-10 it looked as though it would go down to the wire. At this stage, however, Barry won six out of seven ends to surge into a 20-11 lead and although John rallied to narrow the gap to 15-20, Barry was able to score the single he required to reach his second Rose Bowl final with a 21-15 success.
In the bottom half of the draw, Chris Harding was progressing to the semi-finals with tough games against Jim Halsall (21-14), Mike Dunlop (21-18) and Ray Sutton (21-14). His opponent in the semi-fiinal was Brian Jones, who had overcome Jason Chapman (21-7), Jimmy Langley (21-13) and Sue Davies (21-16). With the advantage of a +2 handicap it was Brian who started the semi-final strongly, winning 5 of the first 6 ends to lead 9-1. Chris fought back though and from 12-7 down won 7 consecutive ends to take control of the match at 17-12 and eventually won through to the final with a 21-16 win.
The final saw Chris, playing off scratch, conceding a +4 handicap against Barry Coates and this was to prove difficult to claw back. In a close game, neither player won more than three consecutive ends and when Chris levelled at 16-16 it appeared that greater experience would win the day. However, with Chris counting two on a long mark in the corners, Barry reached up and trailed the jack to leave himself counting two. Although the match was level again at 18-18 after the next end, Barry was able to score the three singles he needed to win the 2014 Rose Bowl final by a 21-18 margin.
The Club would like to thank Jimmy Langley for his generosity in donating a bottle of whisky as a raffle prize, raising £39.00 for club funds. Thanks also to Jason Chapman for his assistance in selling the tickets.
The Raffle was won by Jayne Eustace and presented to her by Bill Nowell our Club President
Members are reminded that the next weekend event will be a Round Robin, to be held on Saturday 10th May at 2.00pm.
