TREADING WATER IN THE DEEP END

27/7/22
AUTUMN WATERLOO TROPHY
At Euston Green, Fleetwood Bowling Club
1st Qualifying Round
v MARCUS HILL (Barnsley) W 21-20 (Off 5-5)

The nature of my win on Monday night notched up my confidence, but it was a sensation to be wary of going in to my third taste of tournament bowls. 

If the head was floating in the clouds, the feet were still firmly on the floor. Expecations at the Autumn Waterloo qualifiers were to get double figures at least and anything else would be a bonus. So leading a serious bowler from Barnsley most of the match was definitely a thing. 

Contrasting green conditions in the space of a couple of days couldn't have been much more extreme. From chucking in the wet at Heath Charnock's Bay Horse Monday night, the well worn Fleetwood surface didn't take long to bake after two dry days and was running quick, and even quicker by the time I got on - the last game on the list of sixteen first round bouts on this sun soaked afternoon.

Despite the trickiness of the green, during practice I was rolling a few good ones and didn't feel ridiculously out of my depth. I was genuinely starting to believe I might be able to give someone a game.

I got off to a good start against Marcus, winning the first end well despite losing the toss. So the trend continued, playing very well at times and I'm not sure about the scores exactly but I was leading - he came back a bit - and then I led again, perhaps about 17-13 at some point. 

Glowing in my bubble of surpassed expectations, I might have dropped a gear or Marcus upped a gear - probably the latter, or maybe both. Although I hit nineteen first, I couldn't do enough to see it out and ended up 20-20 with Marcus in charge of the jack. The last end was a very tricky round peg in to the middle of the green and neither of our efforts justified winning a match, really. Although I fancied mine on a measure with a bowl in hand, there was no way I could risk picking the mat up. My second effort was equally wayward as the rest, but just knocked my opponent's possible counter out by sitting inside it to pinch the end. Then I pinched myself, I'd got through!

2nd Qualifying Round
v MICK CORBETT (Fleetwood) L 15-21 (Off 5-5)

It was a quick turnover on to my next match. It wasn't long before my name was sounded over the tannoy as imminent to play and by the time I'd nipped to the loo, my next opponent is stood there waiting.
Another lost toss and this time I'm on the back foot from the off, conceding two's on the first three ends to give myself a mountain to climb and a brief fear that I wasn't going to get a score on the board. I broke in on the fourth end though and eventually got myself on a good run down the far side of the green to narrow the deficit and maybe even draw level - concentration was on the game much more than the scores, but I knew I'd salvaged my way back in to the match during this spell. But when Mick finally got me out of there, like Marcus in the last match, he played some crazy round peg, almost u-turning that trickled over and off the crown and despite not getting that near, got near enough. In hindsight I made the mistake of trying to play the perfect bowl when it was simply impossible on some marks and conceeded too many hurtful twos.
If I found the land, there was just too much weight and my woods just wouldn't come to a halt in time. I should have just literally focused on trying to better the opponent's shot.
That early deficit of six had been restored and I fluffed a good chance to stay in the match on the last end, but didn't beat myself up about it. I was enjoying it all a bit too much perhaps and didn't quite have my fighting head on.
Much learned from the whole experience.
I'm not sure one could say I was swimming in this sort of company, but certainly treading water and keeping my head above the surface.
I had a go, played some really good bowls at times on difficult green conditions and did myself no disgrace whatsoever.
I can now very faintly sniff what's required to sneak through to a Waterloo Finals Day and the ambition has got to be to eventually get there one day.  

Driving home from Fleetwood, stuck in a shitty traffic jam - caused by over-zealous road 'improvements' to buffer the seemingly endless developments of plastic suburbia, in which a detached house only gains such classification by the width of a wheely bin - my mind wandered back a few weeks to a league match against Empire Services. Strangely, haven't noticed, seen or heard of 'big I am' Darren's appearance at this tournament - the FA Cup of crown green - or any others for that matter... just saying.