FORM AND CONFIDENCE RETURNS OUT OF THE BLUE

Sunday 30th July 2023
EAGLE & CHILD PRESIDENT'S DAY TROPHY
1st Round
v ANDY SEXTON W 21-5 (Off +2 v -5)

Andy is still lumbered with a considerable handicap in this competition after his President's Day victory in 2021.
Starting the match with a large overall advantage of seven, I tootled down to the green feeling pretty good after a half hour run and second quadruple espresso of the day.
I considered the least of my ambition was just to keep things tight, prevent my opponent from any periods of dominance and that would be enough to squeeze through. The ideal scenario though, would be to win the game outright without needing the considerable handicapping to scrape through. .
Dark thoughts that it was my game to lose never really entered my head. I'd had a couple of chance practice games with the calming influence of Nigel Tomlinson yesterday and was feeling OK about my home game again.
This was the third meeting in club competition against Andy. In that final match two years ago, I'd run out of steam and was punching above my weight against the best player on the day and got spanked. Last summer we fought out a close game in the Members League, but felt I just about deserved the win. So there was reason to believe I had a good chance again if I played well enough.
The first few ends went either way but I felt I was rolling well and grew in confidence.
Confidence. A word not applicable to my bowling for a while. Out of the blue, I found some really good form.  

I had a decent little run with the block and put some good two's together which impacted some hurt on to the scorecard.
Hearing I was on eleven with Andy yet to get out of his handicap deficit, I felt in control and that I was only getting better as the match went on.
There was only one end in which I was disappointed with both my bowls. Most of my leads were good, which has been a bugbear of late, and generally hit a level I was very happy with. I played a less complicated game with more straight pegged ends and it seemed to work. 
Real score 19-10 in the end, so no reliance on the generous handicap. Although Andy was not on his game by any stretch, I played as well as I have done in recent times and didn't really give my opponent a chance.
With +2 on the card, if I can bottle up this level of confidence and performance for next week's finals day then I could be a pain on the arse for anybody. 
But it's all on the day, as they say.