HANDICAP JUST ENOUGH TO SCRAPE IN TO PRESIDENT'S  DAY

17/8/22

EAGLE & CHILD PRESIDENT'S DAY TROPHY: 1st ROUND
v PHIL BRADSHAW W 21-19 (Off +2 v -6) Actual score: 19-25

Despite being landed the toughest draw on paper, the handicap system was generous and just about generous enough to scrape me through to Sunday's last sixteen finals day.
All things considered, I was quietly confident. Really, really quietly. So quiet the human ear couldn't detect it. Our dogs knew, our cat definitely knew. But nobody else did.
The Eagle green was running fast and so consistency was always going to be a challenge for me, but with eight chalks in my favour from the off, I reckoned I had a chance to scrape over the line first if I could send enough good bowls when they mattered.
Phil took me to the cleaners a bit in our Members League match earlier in the Summer and so even with this handicap aiding my cause, I knew I had to push him much harder to make the advantage count.
A good start was paramount and I stayed with him for long enough to give myself a fighting chance. At 13-7 (real terms 11-13) I was doing just that. Then we were 16-10 (14-15) I think, but just as I could see the line, Phil seemed to step up the pressure and superbly measured lead bowls were being joined by a second one of equal quality and I was feeling the squeeze. A scratch game to 21 would have been lost at this point, but I could have walked away happy to have pushed this classy opponent as far as I did.
Back in handicap contest reality though, I was still going. I then had a couple of good ends to hit nineteen first. Now this really was that scrap of an opportunity that I dared to believe could happen. I reckon my furry friends at home were pricking their ears at this point. 
Once again though, Phil came back and we were nineteen across. With block in hand, he was then lying game near the middle edge of the green with two well weighted, but not unbeatable efforts that swung over the middle of the crown. My first bowl was on the road but had way too much energy behind it and clunked in to the gutter. My second was a good length but just pegged away and I thought I'd blown it, hoping I'd saved one at best, but Phil is puzzled at my chunnering curses as I approach... "It's won it!", he assures me.
Next end and my first is two foot through but just counts. My second is slightly nearer but short and very surprisingly Phil's last bowl didn't get near and I got myself over the line. 

The actual score of 19-25 against this mon though reads bloody well to me. Whether or not he's playing much at the moment, wants it as much as I do, it's irrelevant. Phil is a quality player.
In my opinion he's just a level above the rest at the Eagle & Child. On top of his ability, Phil Bradshaw is a good sportsman, happy to share his knowledge and offer encouragement. The club's 'top block' with very good reason in my opinion.
At one point he is still coaching me about my dubious choice of shot on the previous end after I'd sent the jack on the next end... trying hard to listen whilst keeping my eye on the mark... just the sort of multi-tasking I struggle with! But I actually appreciated his interest in my game.
Some good players are a closed book as if they have secrets to guard and there's little chance of a conversation about the match or bowls in general.
As a competitive runner, rarely a runner I've met at any level that doesn't want to talk about running. What's wrong with one or two of these bowling folk?
I'm growing to love this game of crown green and once I've half an idea of what I'm doing, I'd like to think I would give something back, be encouraging to new bowlers and break this rather draconian old school poker-faced mentality. 

If not crippling the game of more folk giving it a go, then certainly contributing to folk not enjoying the game enough to stick with it. 

I think I'm digressing in to a seperate blog post here, but it's just something I've noticed and something Phil's comparitively open book just highlights.

It can be a serious game, you need to concentrate, we would all rather win than lose, but the game needn't be played as if signs of emotion or social interaction are somehow a weakness. Especially at local level bowling. 

To requote a bowling cliche I've heard from Phil Bradshaw himself on more than one occasion, "We aren't playing for the town clock." 

The 2019 President's Day winner Mr Bradshaw wished me all the best for Sunday and told me to go and win it. A very tall order and especially when I look at the line up in the last sixteen. If I can play at my best then there's half a chance of doing well.