This home fixture against Gloucestershire was the first leg of the 2018/2019 Two Shires Competition. Gloucestershire won by 26 points to 14, having won ten of the individual matches and gaining six of the eight available bonus points. Worcestershire scored 179 shots compared with 211 by Gloucestershire.
Session 1. Both Jim Tingle and Johnathon Smith won their opening singles matches – both with a two shot advantage. Jim shot into the lead and was 11-1 up after the 5th end. His opponent fought back strongly and scores were level at 14-14 going into the final end of he match. Jim kept his nerve and won this last end by two shots. Johnathon Smith was level with his opponent 11-11 after the 12th end and with a total of four shots off the 13th and 15th ends ( compared with two shots off the 14th end by his opponent ) Johnathon won 15-13. Both pairs teams lost their matches
Session 2 . In the triples, Trish Clifford/Sandra Felton/Cayman Dredge were marginally ahead for most of their hard fought match. Scores, however, were level going into the last end, but the Worcs. team kept their nerve and won the end by two shots to win the match 13-11. Keith Mills triples team lost their match. Alan Walters’ fours team were either behind or level with their opponents for the first 8 ends ( 7-8 down after the 8th end ). Winning the 9th end by 3 shots and the 10th end by a massive 6 shots, the team rocketed to a 16-9 win. Terry Clifford’s fours team narrowly lost their match 10-12.
Session 3. Except for the first end Johnathon Smith was ahead of his opponent for the whole of his singles match. With a very strong and consistent performance Johnathon comfortably won by 17 shots to 8. Jim Tingle lost his singles match. In the pairs Pete Forster and Malcolm Saunders had a hard fought match with their opponents. They won 9 of the 15 ends in the match but with strong opposition scores were level 11-11 after the 13th end. Both Pete and Malcolm held their nerve and with a strong performance by both of them they took two shots off each of the final two ends to win 15-11. Dave Grove and Leah Arthurs-Thompson lost their pairs match by the narrowest of margins 11-12.
Session 4. A disappointing session for the home team with both Triples and both Fours losing their matches.
A summary of the results is shown below :
