A remarkable escape for the Misfits team was sealed with a stalemate in our penultimate match against third placed B Team. Landing the peculiar tally of 1.5 points for a drawn match, this was enough to maintain our top flight status for next Winter.
Kevin Bibby and our captain Steve Marginson's winning run came to an end, but Nigel and I made it four in a row. Fortunate perhaps that their main man Eammon Delaney wasn't playing that evening, but nevertheless a good 21-14 win against two good bowlers.
Valiant efforts were put up against champions Westhoughton in the season's final game, with Kevin and Steve playing well and leading Dave Higginbottom and George Chadwick 10-7 until Steve knocked his own out with a last bowl which instigated a swing of momentum and epitomised how just one bowl can often turn a match. Our pair were tortured to defeat from thereon down the far side of the back green.
Nige and I were playing one of the game's best pairings in Kevan Shaw and Ben Phillips and although far from being brushed aside by our opponents, they were just too strong for us and had an answer at every telling moment in the match when we threatened to give ourselves a chance. We were eventually shaken off 11-21 down the same side of the green as our teammates in the previous match, with Kevan landing excellent leads on marks that appeared most straight forward, but were all about sending absolute perfect weight.
I absolutely bloody love playing against them. It's an honour, an education and as big a buzz as doubles down at Fox Lane on a cold and probably damp Wednesday evening could ever get.
One of the reasons I was desperate for us to stay up was the opportunity to play against these two, Dave Higginbottom and the other top bowlers on their team again next Winter.
Kevan and Ben are a real class act, highest quality players, gentlemen of the game and with proper firm handshakes. Nothing limp or clammy about their traditional pre and post match hand clasp. Much, much lesser bowling mortals should take note!
A mention for our other players in the team, starting with Harry Derbyshire for whom we have missed and especially earlier in the Winter when we were struggling. Harry's been out of action during the Winter following an operation and subsequent recovery period.
Steve Banks meanwhile hasn't got a look in for a while after a series of postponements and then by his own admission, not wanting to break the current winning formula that staved off relegation. Banksy was still always in attendance to support the team every week.
Andy Sexton, a key player in last season's successful rise to the runners-up spot, has made only a couple of cameo performances this Winter. This runs consistent with what seems to be his fraught relationship with the game in recent times.
RUN DOWNThere are more bugs going around at the moment than even Piers Morgan could have boasted during his phone tapping editorial pomp.
Contracting three cold viruses inside four months has been difficult to comprehend and the latest dose perhaps the worst of the lot.
I'd only got back running for a few weeks after the bug that kicked the New Year in, before being forced out of action yet again with some crappy flu symptoms (more than just man flu) and as it lingers it takes the edge off my energy levels, so now pushing three weeks since I last ran.
There's much worse things of course and I shouldn't complain. But it's a bit frustrating because during a spell where I've got on top of both old and the new injury niggles, only for bloody illnesses now preventing some sort of progression.
One of the many legacies of Covid seems to be the havoc played with immune systems. I'm not the only one complaining of bug after bug recently. All in all I went well over two years or so without any sort of cold virus after the lockdowns and mask wearing regulations in public places. The only ailment I experienced during this period was Covid itself.
From finally catching a good old normal head cold last November, it now feels like a hell of lot of time spent sniffling, snuffling, sneezing and coughing ever since.
Pre-Covid normality, if I caught a cold, once recovered I could get back stuck in to training knowing I've probably at least six months grace until the next viral intrusion. Not so lately, as I seem to pick up everything that's going around as if I'm a toddler all over again.
Hopefully when finally through this latest batch of unsavoury infection, some sort of bodily factory reset kicks in and I get a fair chance of working towards a good fitness level again by Spring.
Will I actually EVER race regularly again?? I'll never give up trying, or believing!