Northamptonshire came to Bromsgrove on the 19th August for this friendly pre season match, a match which Worcestershire won by 22 points to 18 in a closely fought competition. Worcestershire scored 231 shots with Northamptonshire scoring 172, in a competition which saw the home county winning eight of the individual matches and drawing two out of the sixteen played.
Session 1. Mixed fortunes in the opening Singles matches with Jim Tingle winning his match 15-10, having been in the lead for 13 of the 15 ends played.Richard Payne’s match was very tight with scores level going into the last end. With a two shot deficit in this final end Richard narrowly lost 13-15. In the Pairs there were two impressive wins. Peter Forster/Richard Rose took the lead in the sixth end and then maintained this lead for the rest of the match, winning nine of the fifteen ends played, to win comfortably 16-9. Dave Grove/Leah Arthurs-Thompson took the lead in the seventh end and continued this lead, winning nine out of fifteen ends to finish winning by 15 shots to 10.
Session 2. Keith Mills’ Triples team were virtually level with their opponents throughout most of their match which ended as a draw 11-11. Although only winning four of their thirteen end match, Cayman Dredge’s Triples team only lost narrowly 12-14. In the Fours, Malcolm Saunders’ team were ahead of their opponents in nine of the eleven ends played. The team won the first end by five shots, quickly countered by their opponents scoring four shots in the second end, Thereafter in a hard fought match Malcolm’ team took four shots off the last four ends to win 12-10. Terry Clifford’s team were also ahead of their opponents in nine of their eleven ends to run out comfortable winners by 13 shots to 7.
Session 3. Again mixed fortunes for the Singles but this time a win for Richard Payne, and a narrow defeat for Jim Tingle 11-14, Richard won eleven of his fifteen end match and was in total control of the match throughout. Except for one end when scores were level, Richard led throughout the match and went on to win by 18 shots to 11. Both Pairs teams won giving them a 100% success for the day. Between them they won 23 of the 30 ends played, scoring 46 shots against the oppositions reply of 11 shots. Peter Forster/Richard Rose romped away from their opponents winning 12 of the 15 ends played ( it was not until the 8th end that the opposition managed to get one shot ). Peter and Richard finished by winning by a massive 26 shots to 4.
Dave Grove/Leah Arthurs-Thhompson also had a very successful match winning 11 of their 15 ends played After the 8th end scores were level and the match had every indication of being hard fought. Dave and Leah then went on to win 6 of the remaining 7 ends, scoring 14 shots to their opponents 1 shot, to win by an impressive 20 shots to 7.
Session 4. Two very hard fought Triples matches with Keith Mills’ team narrowly losing 8-9. Cayman Dredge’s team went into the last end one shot down but managed to win that end to achieve an honorable draw 9-9. Both Fours teams lost their matches.
Results summary below :
