Falcon Ladies and Men win through in the Yetton Trophy and Denny Cup respectively

Last Saturday saw some top class bowling at Falcon. Both the Men’s team and the Ladies’ Team were in the Regional Final of the premier Club Four Rink Knockout competitions, the Denny Cup for the men and the Yetton Trophy for the Ladies. The opposition in both games came from Norfolk, Gallow for the Denny and Acle for the Yetton, which meant long journeys for the two rinks that had to travel away (the format is two rinks at Home, two rinks Away and match decided by aggregate score over 21 ends).

The Gallow team at Falcon settled in quite quickly and were playing some great shots, keeping abreast of or slightly ahead of Falcon at the beginning. When the results of the first five ends came in from Gallow, Falcon were trailing there, and it looked as if Falcon’s four rinks had a real fight on their hands. However, as the game went on our Home rinks began to pull away and the Falcon Away teams began to get control too, so that the Falcon advantage began to grow steadily. Although the game should normally be played to 21 ends, by the 18th end Falcon were 95-59 ahead and Gallow conceded. A great team effort with three of our rinks winning overall and the fourth drawing Away, a very creditable performance by all the players, against a team that had already beaten some strong opponents in earlier rounds.

The Ladies knew they were in for a fight as Acle had beaten Norfolk in the previous round, an extremely strong team that traditionally do very well in the Yetton. The game didn’t get off to a good start as one of the Falcon players at Acle was taken ill at the start and couldn’t continue. One of our rinks therefore had to play with just three players, with Lead and Two having three bowls each, Skip two bowls but then suffering a 25% reduction in their score. The two rinks at Falcon were very close in aggregate by halfway. Because of the delay at Acle due to the player taken ill, the Acle rinks were 30 minutes behind the Falcon rinks and the scores were late. Initially our Away rinks got of to a slow start and the aggregate scores showing at Falcon indicated that Acle were substantially in the lead, some 19 or 20 shots ahead at one stage.

But then things started to change. The Home rinks still managed to stop Acle building a lead on their two rinks and the two Away rinks began to claw back the deficit. The two Home rinks finished level on aggregate and then there was a very tense wait as the game at Acle still had four more ends to play. Acle have webcams on their rinks, so we could watch the game progressing and the scores slowly tick up. The first of the Away rinks had finished and that made the aggregate score 73-72 to Falcon. The other rink started well with a Falcon bowl tucked just behind the jack. However, an Acle bowl touched the jack and it was very close to it, so close that we couldn’t see which was shot. The end finished with those two bowls being the crucial ones. The umpire was called and he measured three or four times, using the callipers before finally giving shot to us. So Falcon ran out winners by 74-72, in a very exciting finish.

Well done to all the players, for displaying both skill and a refusal to give up. Both Falcon teams are now in the last eight nationally and will be playing the rest of their games on neutral greens. The Ladies have to play Cumbria (Carlisle) on 15th February so even halfway will be a long trip. The men are not much closer, with their next opponents being Hartlepool on 8th February. Furter details will follow.

 

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