This home fixture saw the county win it’s third match of the 2019-2020 ESMBA inter county competition. They beat Northants by 22 points to 18, winning eight of the individual games played and drawing two. This gave the county 18 match points with a further two bonus points for the Singles and for the Triples matches.
Session 1. A very quiet start to Sean’s opening Singles match as he went into a 4-0 lead after five ends ( “one tied end” ).With four shots taken off the seventh end he went into a strong 8-1 lead, – a late surge by his opponent was not enough to prevent Sean winning 15-9. Johnathon had a similar start in his opening Singles match and was 9-1 up after seven ends. Four shots from end No. 8 by his opponent reduced this lead and further successes saw Johnathon lead only by 11-10 going into the final end. Johnathon finished very strongly by taking the maximum 4 shots from end No. 15 to win by 15-10. Leah and Richard narrowly lost their Pairs match with Dave and Malcolm drawing 12-12 in their strongly contested game.
Session 2. Richard Payne’s Triples team narrowly lost but Alan’s team having led throughout their game won by 15 shots to 10. Both Fours teams lost their games.
Session 3. In the afternoon session Sean once again prevented his opponent from scoring until the sixth end, at which point Sean was leading 10-1. Although his opponent put in a strong performance later in the game Sean went on to win his second match of the day by 16 shots to 12. Johnathon narrowly lost his game. In their afternoon game Leah and Richard, in a closely fought contest, led throughout the 15 ends to run out winning by 13 shots to 11. Dave and Malcolm in their afternoon game got off to a poor start and were 0-7 down after four ends. With a switch of lead/skip they dramatically changed the game winning seven of the next eight ends. With scores level at 12-12 at the beginning of the final end tensions were high. In the event this final end was tied leaving Dave and Malcolm with their second 12-12 draw of the day.
Session 4. Richard’s Triples team were in the lead from the third end until their opponents drew level in the 12th end at 11-11. The final end saw Richard’s team get that all important shot to win 12-11. Alan’s team had another very successful match and won their second match of the day by 12 shots to 7.. Keith’s Fours team lost but Terry’s team in a very close and hard fought match led throughout to run out winning by 11 shots to 9.
A summary of the day’s results is shown below :
