FERRIS WHEELS AWAY TO WIN*

11/10/22

PENWORTHAM SPORTS FLOODLIT COMPETITION
At Penwortham Sports Club
FIRST QUALIFYING ROUND
v DANNY FERRIS (Stoke) L 9-21

I recognised Danny's name from various results posted around and overheard he'd travelled from The Potteries.
The fabulous Penwortham Sports green is worth the trip alone in my opinion, but my opponent surely had eyes on the prizes to come this far to central Lancashire for a Tuesday night roll.
A tough first round match beyond realistic hopes of a win was highly likely from strong qualifying pools in this competition, but unperturbed I simply wanted to make a decent account of myself.
Typically, tails always fails ever since pronouncing it didn't, but despite loss on the toss, I picked up the first end with a very good bowl and proceeded to work my way to 5-2 up and on merit, with some more very sweet deliveries.
Maintaining that level might have been enough to give this chap a game, but I'm not there yet and a sloppy lead bowl followed by a few shots just not quite getting there saw Danny's consistent closeness edge him out in to a 7-11 lead... when, most unusually, a toilet break was politely requested.
I've not experienced anyone doing this midway through a game before and was a bit surprised to be honest, but I could hardly say, "I don't think so Danny, tie a knot in it pal", could I?
Whether it was the euphoria of releasing bladder tension, a little chat with himself in the mirror of the boy's room - or both? - he came back and destroyed me over the next three ends with three two's of supreme precision and the destiny of the game was then pretty much assured at 7-17.
Danny nudges on to eighteen as I still can't find a way in, but then I came back with a very good two along the far side of the green where I'd just missed out moments earlier. With jack back in hand after some time without, I find a tricky mark that I was hoping would be actually quite uncomplicated and fluff my line. Danny learns from this and puts one close enough to take the single. He then gets another as I find the right road but just roll short. The same scenario played out on the next end too and we're done.
I dig in to a bit of homework afterwards and find my opponent a regular player for Congleton Park who were runners-up in the Stoke & District Premier Division this season, so not a bad effort here. I felt the score was a bit harsh actually, but if you don't reach you can't make a difference. I was trying to roll perfect when a bit more aggression was required at times.
Danny was a reet nice lad and I wished him well for the next round, but was then surprised to see him on the back foot as he got put to the sword by John Lester.
The following evening the three young superlads from my club, Aaron, Jack and Matt were in action with Aaron and Matt both excelling to get the two wins required and make it to finals day. In the last sixteen, only narrow defeats to Darren Bithell and Josh Mordue very respectively, proved that these two talents are closing in on the upper sanctum of this game.

MY FAVOURITE GREEN... IT'S OFFICIAL
I've had the fortune of playing a few practice games with my friend Lee on Penwortham Sports and after this most recent visit I can say for sure it's my favourite so far and will take some beating wherever my bowls may take me.
A fantastic surface, weird and wonderful marks... I don't think I could ever get bored on there. It's a cracking venue for competitions too and their club's star players Owen Jackson and Sam Patterson do an excellent job running the show. Luckily I spotted notification of a spare place this Autumn, so I need to be on the ball to book in for the next comp here in Spring.

*How could I not pair up 'Ferris' with 'wheel' somehow?