SURPRISE RETURN TO MONDAY ACTION

Monday 12th June 2023
Chorley & District League Div-2: Eagle & Child 'A' - Mawdesley 'A'
v PETER SEPHTON W 21-11

Monday morning started with my back in a really bad place and only just able to gingerly walk the dogs on the park.
With some exercises as directed by my wife and the wonders of ibuprofen, I got moving around with some tender form of normality again by the afternoon.
I wasn't in the team for the evening's bowling match so no fears at this point about whether I was fit to bend down and chuck woods. I kept the tablets going though and thought I should show willing and get to the game early for a practice at least and was surprised to be told straight away by that I'm playing.
Yessss! With additional shot of adrenaline at this news, my back felt fine and forgotten as I quickly poured my woods on to the green and cracked on.
Down to the default of missing a couple of players and the very gracious decision of our captain Steve Marginson to put me before himself, I had this very unexpected opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the team again.
With the perished green surface at the Eagle starting to go rough with various cracks and bobbles, the club had taken the rare measure of watering the green at the tail end of last week. This was followed by a welcome bit of rain on Saturday evening and the sting was taken off it for now. This seemed to suit me and I played quite well throughout.
Peter had to earn most of his points, there were rarely any easy pickings for him at all. If my first bowl did stray, I was correcting very well with my second one. This helped keep the demons at bay and stay in a positive mental state... for once!
It's not that Peter didn't play well at times, I just started getting a bit of confidence back and that reflected in the way I played and the decisions I made.
Throughout this muggy evening we seemed to be in the periphery of thunderstorms, but apart from a few splashes, nothing major departed from the heavy skies over the Eagle & Child. 

Not so just four miles away in Chorley, as some of our 'B' team players rolled up to watch us after their match had been postponed due to a huge downpour that waterlogged the green at St George's. Very local weather and quite unpredictable, rather like my evening really.
I came down expecting to do a scorecard, see the team do well and then scratch my head even harder at how I might get a sniff of getting back in before the summer's out.
Instead, I played, played well, even won the sweep and given myself a shout for selection at Farington Cons next week.
That's a place I need to go and damn well get a win at if I'm on the card. A team win there would be massive. After another home victory tonight, but with no team other than leaders Penwortham having bagged an away win so far, picking up something on our travels would be a huge boost in maintaining position and pushing for a possible successive promotion.