BACK ON SONG DESPITE ANOTHER LOSS

Thursday 8th June 2023
Leyland & District League Div-3: Leyland & Leyland & Farington Social - Eagle Reds
v ERIC JONES L 17-21

It's been dry for almost a month now with temperatures steadily increasing day by day.
At Farington Social, a narrow strip of grass represented what once was. Clinging on to it's natural pigment along one side of the green thanks to a thin shadow cast by the North facing visitors stand.
The rest was desert. The hardest, fastest running bowling surface that I think I've encountered so far. My home green was wild enough, having had a go on it the previous day. But Farington Social's surface was just unplayable in some areas and the clunk of a jack or the following woods wobbling off the green was a frequent sound and sight for most of the evening.
Pre-match practice had gone well though and I was feeling quite confident of putting up a decent account of myself here despite the conditions. Having seen a little of my opponent bowl (and sing) in the past (I recognised Eric Jones as top billing at our annual Eagle & Child presentation night) I also knew that he was perhaps the toughest bill on the card in Farington's line up that evening, who currently top the division.
The whole match was a close contest, with neither of us getting much of a run with the jack. But Eric slowly built up an advantage to 12-17 and whilst unruffled by deficit for once and concentrating on my game, I felt the score was rough justice at this point.
A double ditcher didn't help, when I sent two woods on a perfect road that weren't bad at all really, but inconcievably were slowly sucked in to the gutter when it looked as if they had actually stopped. I'm still sure I took a bit out of that second bowl, but there you go!
Eric had a habit of producing something special just when I looked like taking some initiative at any point. Notably when playing in to the notorious far corner, twice
I send a very reasonable bowl down there, only to be trumped by two incredible touchers from Mr Jones. He also found that lonesome strip of visitor's end grass helpful to keep one in.
I came back in to it though and at 17-19 could sniff a chance again. I had to be more precise with my lead bowl which wasn't shabby in terms of weight, but Eric nicked in there with a slightly better road to bend on to the jack over the last couple of feet.
Eric then rolls another front toucher on his subsequent lead bowl and on this occasion, striking was the only option with a guarantee of killing the end if I make contact. My first one was maybe a foot wide, but my second effort was less than an inch off saving the game and got the ritual "Oooooh!" from both sets of teams.
Some ends made us both look silly, but generally it was a decent game on a very tricky surface and a new record finishing time for me of 10pm. Importantly though, I enjoyed the match, wasn't too disconcerted with the result or the way I played and got a bit of enthusiasm back that had recently been on the wane.
Despite only four wins from nine matches this season, a score of 16 in our first game at Farington Cons remains my lowest so far in this league. Whilst becoming more difficult to beat it would seem, I've got to be looking at getting these close games swung in my favour a bit more and particularly away from home.
Our team went down on the night but there were some good performances, notably from Terry Grayston and Phil Donnelly finding some form.