This was the County’s first match of the 2014/15 season. The Wiltshire venue,a village hall in Seend,Melksham, had an interesting floor. The mats were fast on a hard floor and the County squad took some time to adjust to the unfamiliar pace of the mats .
The first session consisting of Singles and Pairs started badly for the County and during the first few ends the teams were getting the feel of the mats both from the pace of them and the line. This gave Wiltshire a big advantage that Worcestershire could not turn around although the pairs team of Tim and Keith Mills came close. Most of the Worcestershire scores came at the end of their respective games as the teams were getting the feel of the mats.
The County started the afternoon session with a little more confidence. All matches were hard fought but Wiltshire got the better of the County in the end. The Pairs team Tim and Keith were leading until the last couple of ends and in the Singles match Richard Rose led for a while, lost the lead, but pulled back for a draw with the last bowl of his match.
The Triples and Fours teams fared better in the afternoon session, with all leading at one stage with three of the four teams only losing touch at the finish. The County’s best result of the day was the Triple skipped by Dave Powell. A real see-saw match, won by Dave with a fabulous last bowl running shot that changed a one shot deficit to a one shot win .
This was a very disappointing start for the County with atotal of 3 points against 37 points for Wiltshire. The improvement in the County’s performance in the afternoon was marked and the County look forward to getting “revenge” when Wiltshire visit Bromsgrove later this year.
The results of each of the county teams is shown below :
