County v Gloucestershire – Sunday 10th March 2024

Result of the match  v  Gloucestershire.       Worcestershire 19 points  ( 141 shots ) –  Gloucestershire   21 points  ( 152 shots ).

This home fixture was the first leg of the 2024 ” Two Shires Trophy ” competition with Gloucestershire. The second leg will take place at Kingsway, Gloucester on Saturday 20th April.

The format for the day consisted of 8 teams of triples, playing with 3 bowls, over 11 ends. In addition to the normal 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw, there would be 2 bonus points for each of the four sessions for a positive shot difference.

Worcestershire have seen relatively poor results in recent competitions, but Sunday saw a much improved performance and result. The County only lost this match by 2 points , in a very closely fought competition. They won 7 of the individual games played, drew 1 and lost 8. The County scored 142 shots compared with 151 for Gloucestershire, reflecting the closeness of the competition.

There were a number of new faces for Worcestershire, including in team 6 Tyler Shuck,  aged 12,  many years younger than some of the other members of the squad. This does really emphasise the fact that short mat bowling is for all ages.

photo to follow.

Jim Tingle’s team won both their morning and afternoon  games comfortably, having led throughout both games. Richard Rose’s team won their morning game and there were also wins for June Green’s team and Richard Scotford’s team, ending a successful morning’s play for the County, leading at that stage  13 –  7.

In the afternoon session, although not as successful as the morning, there were wins for, in addition to Jim’s win,  Colin Shuck’s team and Terry Clifford’s team.

Summary of the day’s play shown below :

County v West Midlands – 7th January 2024

This away fixture saw the county losing the match, scoring 13 points to a strong  West Midlands squad total of  27 points. Although disappointing, this result was a marked improvement for the county when compared with the home fixture played on 10th December when the county lost 0-40.

This fixture saw Worcestershire winning 5 of the 16 individual games played and drawing 1. –  the county gained 2 bonus points for a positive shot difference in the Pairs. The county scored a total of 160 shots  ( up by about 60% on the December figure) , with West Midlands scoring 222 shots   ( down by about 27% ).

Morning Session.

Both Singles players had narrow defeats, by only 2 shots in closely fought contests.

In the Pairs, Belinda Gibbs and Terry Clifford took control of their game in the sixth end and finished strongly to win by 19 shots to 13, the county’s first win of the day.

In the Fours Coral Handley’s team took an early lead with 3 shots from the first end. The team continued to lead throughout the game and finished winning by 12 shots to 9.

Afternoon Session

Johnathon Smith drew his closely fought Singles game 11-11.

In their Pairs game Belinda Gibbs and Terry Clifford were slightly behind their opponents throughout 14 of the 15 ends played . End number 15 started with Belinda and Terry down by 8 shots to 9. With an excellent display of bowling they  took the maximum 4 shots from this final end to win by 12-9  –  their second win of the day. Jenny Gibbs and Richard Rose were ahead throughout their Pairs game, and finished comfortable winners by 15 shots to 8.

Johnathon Smith, Malcolm Saunders and Terry Clifford took the lead in their Triples game in the 7th end, having taken 5 shots off that end. They maintained the lead throughout the remainder of the game to win by 14 shots to 8.  This was Terry’s third win of the day.

Summary of the day’s play below :

 

County v West Midlands – Sunday 10th December 2023

This home fixture against a very strong West Midlands squad –  part of the ESMBA regional inter county matches  –  proved to be a great disappointment for Worcestershire, with West Midlands winning all of the individual 16 games played.  There were only three Worcestershire teams  which hinted at success and the possibility of winning their games.  After a disappointing start in the morning it seemed that Jim Tingle’s Fours team could buck the trend with a win. The team were level on 6-6 at the beginning of the 11th end, having drawn level at end 10. Unfortunately the West Midlands team scored 3 shots off this final end to win the game 9-6.

During the afternoon session, Belinda Gibbs/Terry Clifford were 10-5 up in their Pairs game at the end of end 8, but the opposition won a total of 8 shots from ends 10 and 13 to run out winning 18-14.

Richard Payne’s Triples team were leading up to end 8, but with 8 shots from ends 9,10 and 11 the Wes Midlands team eventually won 14-10.