Hi folks (for the last time)
This seasons summer league finished last evening with the finals for the top 4 teams, held at Wotton hall. A big thank you to Jenny Carter and her team for hosting the event.
Favourites for the league title were Kingsway, who have been impressive all season. Surprise omissions from their team were Rose Wilson and Chris Evans, but it just goes to show the depth of talent in the club.
The first matches of the evening were between Kingsway and Yorkley Kestrels, who had finished in 1st and 2nd spots in the regular season, and on the other mat the two Westbury teams battled it out . Yorkley got off to a great start, leading 9-0 after 5 ends and although Kingsway fought back with two 2s on ends 6 and 7 it was a convincing win for the Kestrels. The Westbury Lancasters won quite easily on mat 1 by a score of 8-4, leading throughout the match.
Onto game 2, Kingsway, still on mat 2 at last found their touch and ran away with a 15-1 win against the Hurricanes and the Kestrels had a comfortable 9-3 win against the Lancasters.
So after 2 games…
The Kestrels were in the lead with 6 points from their 2 wins, Kingsway and the Lancasters had 3
The last game between Kingsway and the Lancasters would move the winners up to 6 points but because the Kestrels had already beaten both teams, a tie on points would leave them as champions. The rule for the final was ‘in case of a tie, the result between the two teams would be the decider.
Kestrels lost a close battle with the Hurricanes 6-4 leaving them on 6 points, whilst on the other side of the hall, Kingsway were running away from the Lancasters but knew that if they scored a 6 or more on one end it would give them a bonus point and take the title. It went down to the last end when a 6 was a possibility but they only managed a 4 despite a couple of terrific bowls from their skip, Derek Wilson.
The final results;
League champions Yorkley Kestrels
Runners up Kingsway
Third Westbury Lancasters
Fourth Westbury Hurricanes
The trophy was presented to the winners by county chairman, David Bubb and the runners up were ‘happy’ with some bags of liquorice allsorts.
I am personally pleased for the Kestrels, having played all 24 league games for them although standing down for the finals.
An interesting and fun season with 222 matches played, not one cancellation or shortage of players. 110 bowlers played during the summer.
This was a completely new format for the county. Next season will have to be discussed at length by the county management committee, whether to stick with this format or go back to the previous rules for the county summer league.
Whatever is decided, I wish the new league secretary joy in organising it and hope he has as much fun as I have had this season as league sec/organiser
Mike Wall
