Saturday saw us entertain our friends from Brackley.  It was a beautifully cloudless sky with extremely high temperatures and therefore it was decided to cut the match down to 16 ends.  The opposition did initially say they would be happy to play 14 ends, but we agreed on 16, a decision which backfired on us as over we lost 11 shots over the last 2 ends, thereby losing the game overall 56-59.  There was a special occasion during the game as we were treated to a fly past by the Red Arrows.  The game was initially 4 triples, but as we had 15 players and they had 13, we loaned them one of our number to play 2 rinks and 2 triples.  A big thank you to Jill Hart who kindly agreed to play for the opposition.

 

Rink 1  -  Lead  -  Yvonne Twomey

               No. 2  -  Paul Christmas

               No. 3  -  Mick Wilkins

               Skip    - Chris Twomey

 

Chris was well in control of the game winning 10 of the 16 ends and was leading 20-9 with 2 ends to play, but unfortunately leaked 5 shots on these 2 ends, but still went on to win 20-14.

 

Rink 2  -  Lead  -  Tony Bird

               No. 2  -  Dave Drinkwater

               No. 3  -  Claudia Stokes

               Skip    -  Bryan Ogilvie

 

This was always a close game with never more than 2 hots between the sides and with 2 ends to play we were leading 11-10 but, like Chris's rink we conceded 5 shots over these 2 ends and therefore lost the game 11-15.

 

Rink  3  -  Lead  -  Cliff Hall

                No. 2  -  Pete Griffin

                Skip    -  Dave Bryant

 

Again another very close game and with 3 ends to play were trailing by 1 shot only, but like the other 2 rinks lost the game at the end, going down 11-15.

 

Rink  4  -  Lead  -  Richard Lawrence

                No. 2  -  Phil French

                Skip    -  Mark Stokes

 

It took some time for Mark's rink to get going and were 7-0 down after the first 4 ends and fought back well and with 2 ends to play were level 12-12 but conceded a 3 on the 15th end and although they picked up a 2 on the last end this was not quite enough and they went down 14-15.

 

A very pleasant afternoon with every game extremely competitive, we therefore look forward to the return fixture, which is in 2 weeks time.  As well as a thank you to Jill the usual big thank you to Jenny for looking after the bar and to Skiddy for setting up the room prior to the game.