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 :