BACK ON FORM TO OUTFOX DAVE

 Thursday 24th April 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1

Eagke Reds (190) 7-5- Fox Lane 'A' (167)
v DAVE CHARLESWORTH W 21-11

This was a performance and result that set the bar for the rest of the league season.
Seemingly reserved for Longridge Singles nights until now, the right mix of confidence and concentration returned back on home turf with very little to supply the usual verses of self criticism.
Having said that, my first four bowls had way too much energy behind them. A few nerves perhaps, but the bowler who would have been cursing not so long ago about that could only chuckle at the irony of giving Dave an easy 4-0 head start that a player of his calibre really didn't need against the likes of me.
Staying calm made all the difference, just about winning the next two scruffy ends helped me settle and take a mark that has served me well before in front of the clubhouse, bowling well to go on a further ten point winning streak to lead 12-4. I was buzzing, Mr Charlesworth quite possibly shell-shocked.
That good thing came to an end eventually though and then we shuffled along to 15-8. Realising with jack in hand this was a big end to win I put up a very good lead when Dave struck only to make contact with his own and giving me two.
It was nip and tuck from thereon, breaking a potential comeback to pip Dave's very good lead and seeing out the game leading strong on the next end, not before another strike attempt from my opponent ended up taking out his own bowl again.
Aside from defeats to Dave with various partners on his home green in the Winter doubles, this was actually the second time I've got the better of him at singles during the main season. Last time was a scrappy home game won 21-20 when I was greener and Dave was negotiating a different delivery after back trouble, although I was still chuffed with it at time.
Tonight was fair and square though, home advantage helped but a good win against one of Fox Lane's finest who has been in good form himself.
A number of close games could have gone either way in this local derby match, but we ended up with five winners each and an Eagle victory by virtue of a superior aggregate.

EARLY BIRD DOESN'T QUITE CATCH THE WORM

Wednesday 23rd April 2025

FLEETWOOD SPRING WATERLOO

At the Euston Green, Fleetwood BC
FIRST ROUND QUALIFIER
v KEVIN MOSS (Preston) L 16-21 (off 3-3)

I hadn't read the smallprint or forgot what the usual time was for the Waterloo games, turning up well over an hour early I checked in wondering where the hell everyone else was.
With time to kill and wishing I'd brought some running gear, I take a little wander along Fleetwood front, gazing over Morecambe Bay to the South Lakes skyline and have a bite to eat. When trying to find out the smallprint I missed, I see a notification from my home club and it's very sad news.
Long time member Jim Turner had passed away, a former team mate of mine on Thursday evenings and a really lovely chap. After looking forward to today's bowls, I then felt rather flat and naturally saddened hearing about Jim. I considered the least I could do was try and play with a smile as he would. 
When back to Fleetwood BC in time for practice, clubhouse facilities were not yet opened and I begin to see the unsavoury sight of recognisable County players strewn around the back of the neighbouring Lighthouse green peeing behind bushes and walls.
"But if it's good enough for them...", I thought.
Clambering through a gap to go round the back of an old shed I snag my Craft windproof on a protruding screw. Pardon the pun, but I was truly PISSED about that! On the one hand my own stupid fault, but on the other totally unnecessary if the clubhouse had been accessible in time.
I've lauded previously the fact that I and the game as a whole should be grateful this historic competition is still running if ten miles further up the Lancashire coast, but this was not a flattering situation for a prestigious competition. Players were arriving in droves, had travelled far and wide and required the bare minimum of a public convenience.
This particular qualifying session started out as more a case of the Fleetwood Waterloo-less.
I was initially drawn against Paul Culley who I narrowly beat at Sabden last Autumn, but I didn't spot him during practice and sure enough my opponent had changed since going to press. Thankfully not a bye to round two at least, there's no joy in that.
I could tell from the practice session I was going to play a bit better than of late, but whilst I did start to put up some real good ones in this game, the consistency from one bowl to the next just wasn't quite there again.
Kevin is a vastly experienced player and a good one. Too good to get away with many mistakes against. He played in a big competition at my Eagle & Child club back in the 1980's. "It was a tenner to enter even back then", he recalled.

There wasn't a lot between us for a long period. Unlike recent matches, I could find a big bowl when I needed it and addressed the lack of aggression with three out of four successful weighted hits when Kevin had wrapped the block up.
I couldn't keep hold of the jack though as lead bowls too often let me down. It was a confidence thing, a niggling doubt as I sent the bowl. It was Kevin who eventually had a run with it, playing three or four superbly tight ends in succession to make a break for the finish line.
It was a good game. Another loss, another first round exit here but at least I put up a fight and came away feeling like a much needed win isn't far around the corner.

MORE SUFFERANCE AND A TAME EXIT

Saturday 19th April 2025

HUGH HORNBY LANCS & FYLDE MERIT
At CPA Loveclough, Rossendale
FIRST ROUND QUALIFIER
v STEVE BOLTON (Freckleton) L 9-21

Merit organiser Andy Fleming keeps my contact details and seems happy enough to invite me to such events just to make up the numbers... and I didn't disappoint!
Probably being a little bit harsh on myself there, but tamely exiting the competition after a promising start against vastly experienced Steve Bolton.
Another new green for me - Steve revealed afterwards he was a member here for a few years in the early twenty-teens - it was an immaculate surface. Ran nicely, but not crazily given the extremely short cut on it. In some places it didn't run hard where you expected and viceversa. Tricky, but an absolute pleasure to have a crack at bowling on.
Steve lost the toss and I took the advantage, starting well to take a 5-0 lead. I should've carried on with the mark working for me but was put off by another game's block. In hindsight there was room and I should've just carried on.
I was still very much in it though at 8-8 with Steve having to earn the right to draw level.
My opponent then found a strong pegging mark that turned the tide. He played it well, although on the odd time he didn't, I failed to take advantage and got utterly pissed off with myself. Generally he started to leave little margin for error. The one break I managed, I then didn't lead well and the game slowly slipped away from me.

Getting a bit hot under the collar, I failed to take a deep breath and heed my own advice from a week and a half ago - I wasn't aggressive once I realised I had got in to a hole against a very good player and kept on trying to play the perfect wood - silly bugger.

I wasn't a million miles off in the match, there were a few moments of bad luck too, but just not good enough and not breaking my approach up by thinking more tactically.
It's sufferance at the moment, I just need to play a good game in it's entirety to restore a bit of confidence. 
There was an ulterior motive in choosing Loveclough of the four qualifying venues on offer. I should repeat by saying what a splendid green and beautiful setting it was.
Win or lose, I was running on the moors afterwards. The lovely named Loveclough is a Rossendale settlement I'm familiar with having frequented there before on three or four occasions in the past for the Golf Ball Fell Race. A five miler over the tops to Hameldon Hill and passing the golf ball-like transmission station before dropping back in to the village. Unlike today's bowls, the races went better. A few top five finishes in the halcyon days of my thirties.
Whilst failing to stick to the Golf Ball course - navigation hasn't always been my forte - nevertheless a good forty minutes up and down on some rough stuff was a sixth run in the space of seven days.
Bowling might have hit the buffers for now, but generally feeling better again. 

TOO MANY WAYWARD WOODS

Thursday 17th April 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1 Lonsdale (183) 8-4 Eagle & Child Blue

(169)
v MARK IRELAND L 17-21

Another new green to fathom and once again a familiar opponent from Longridge Singles encounters. I've played Mark on two occasions there with success, but he was a tougher nut to crack on one of his home greens.
Having said that, the game was there for the taking and careful not to take owt away from my opponent, I didn't play well enough to grasp the win.
Too many times for my liking I sent wayward woods. When I should've made two, when I should've saved or should've sent at least one half decent effort. There were plenty of chances early on in the match to make a break on the scoresheet but my inconsistencies contributed to a nip and tuck affair up to 13-13.
Mark managed to push his nose in front from then and despite my best efforts to turn the tide, he popped up with timely killer bowls to make the difference on a good few occasions when I had thought I'd probably done enough.
It was a good game but a disappointing result. I should have got an extra point for the team here. Every point will matter by the end of the season to keep the team in this division. As it was, we picked up four on the road again which is no bad thing.
Form seems to have dipped - although I hadn't rolled a bowl for nearly a week having gone away on a mini-break - but that shouldn't have mattered too much. A practice the day before this match was a bit hit and miss. Sometimes that can be irrelevant, but the hitting and missing carried on to match night.
In the team set up, I'm not playing with the same freedom as I have just rolling for myself in a singles competition.
It's an absolute state of mind thing.
With two competitions next up, no burdening myself with worry about scores and results, just focusing on playing a solid game which is what seems to work.

THE MILTON KEYNES DONS OF CROWN GREEN?
It was Steve Marginson who pointed out to me that Lonsdale weren't even in this league last season. So how is it they have shot straight in to Division One?
It would appear that much of this Lonsdale team are last season's side from Ashton BC who have migrated across Preston, yet maintained Ashton's league status which is a rather strange turn of events that leaves me curious about the legitimacy of it.
Many bowlers are members of more than one club, but this shift of a whole team has a bit of the Milton Keynes Dons about it, when they replaced Wimbledon in the football league without working through the pyramid to get there.
Whatever the reasons for the move or close ties between the Ashton and Lonsdale clubs, I remain to be convinved that being granted automatic Division One status in a straight swap is entirely fair on other clubs from the second tier that are trying to get promoted. Strangely, Ashton 'B' are still in Division Two.
Maybe I know nowt. Maybe the league have allowed clubs to vote on it? I don't know. But no offence to Lonsdale - a good club with players more than capable in this division and a cracking green - but I just don't like the whole MK Dons-ishness about it. 

TOUGH AT THE TOP

Thursday 10th April 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1

Lostock Hall Cons (191) 8-4 Eagle & Child Blue (143)
v DAVE HARGREAVES L 8-21

A proper taste of First Division fayre was dished out against reigning champions Lostock Hall Cons.
Up against Dave Hargreaves, I had a right to believe having played him at Longridge last Autumn. I was narrowly defeated in a tight match in which I was flattered he seemed to remember well.
But it was a different story on his lush little home green here and I just didn't have the skill set or experience to deal with him.
It was the Hargreaves show from the off, leaving very little in the way of reasonable opportunities. End after end I was getting murdered on a mark that one way I couldn't grasp the pace, whilst the other way I could send two fairly good ones and still get nowt. Managing to limit him to singles early on, the pressure broke and a few twos later I'm 1-14 down and desperate.
Despite feeling hot under the collar and a bit stressed at how the game had quickly got away from me, I kept some composure and rallied, effectively going 7-7 with him from that point and limiting the overall damage with a plucky eight.
A player of Dave's quality and his green knowledge obviously had a massive advantage over someone having their first rolls on there. A prime example at 8-19, when I send the jack across the clubhouse, middle of the green and right over the crown. My first bowl is perfectly jack line and I like the pace, I tend to know when I've sent a good one... perfect pace it was, but inexplicably with maybe ten yards to go my wood doesn't take the slight right and lands two yards away to the left! Dave then sends what looks slightly narrow and yet head-scratchingly for me ends up tapping up the target. So I follow his bowl line and this one really does look good until I hit the back of his... I didn't get much luck either!
Clutching at the positives as one has to when getting a battering, Dave's precision was relentless and watching other matches afterwards, some of their other players perhaps left a little more room for opportunity at times. So I got one of the toughest of the guaranteed tough draws in their very strong side and it was a bit of a rude awakening on my first visit to Lostock Cons.
Getting on the back foot against good bowlers may be a more regular occurrence in this league now, but when I sense trouble like this, I need to be more aggressive, mix it up a bit rather than seeking to play the impossible millimetre perfect wood under pressure.
My one attempt of disruption in this match was with ill-judged pace and born of frustration rather than tact.
Back to the positives and from a team point of view, most definitely with four winners against the league's top team.

Phil Bradshaw began the point-taking with a good win over Andy Graham. The home bowler taking the loss badly which wasn't a good look. (Note to a lately reformed self) Then Steve Marginson beat Paul Ferguson, before Steve Wilson played a blinder to pull away from Josh Iddon at the tail end of a long match. New team captain Aaron Hargreaves was last off the green to make it four points with victory over Pedro Yates. 

STAYING IN SHAPE BECOMING MORE AND MORE CHALLENGING

This was afterall supposed to be some sort of diarised update of running adventures too. But lately, very little in the way of action to report after an underlying virus of some sorts. 

"There's a lot going round" is a well used phrase about such ailments and I don't know what the frig this is in particular, but my wife's had a similar struggle and it continues to linger in to week six just now.

If it has taken the sheen off some aspects of life at times (even bowls has been known to tire me out!) feeling flat with exhaustion much of the time has decimated my will and capability to run or even get on the bike, spoiling what had been a short period in as good a shape as I have been in recent years.

After carefully seeing out calf trouble last Autumn I got running strong again. December was a good month of running and also going in to the New Year. I wasn't murdering the mileage, simply running regularly, efficiently, doing a few speed sessions and most importantly enjoying it.
The last real decent little run I had was in Mid-February, just a short one from Great Langdale up and around the modest height of Side Crag and Blea Tarn. It broke my running legs back in to the fells during a long weekend camping up there.
Another strong week followed before running regularity began to stagger, feeling very lethargic and I had to concede summat was up. Symptoms among throaty soreness, nasal drip, hollow head, achey limbs and general can't be arsedness.
The lack of endorphins and lack of energy to get them has resulted in a double negative of probably drinking too much beer. Not getting drunk or owt - I really am well past all that - but not enough nights of refraining from a few. If that's not altogether an unusual trait from time to time, the additional lusting to just eat bad stuff and crap really isn't me. I've managed to mainly curb that temptation at least, aside from my problem (fit or not) with multiple McVitie's Digestives accompanying a strong cafetiere.
It's surely time to get going again soon.  I've had a couple of OK days lately where it's like I can feel blood running through my veins again, but mixed in with the usual jiggeredness by late afternoon and so maybe whatever is, it's slowly on its way out and I might slowly find a way back.
At 51, it's becoming more and more of a challenge just to stay in shape over a consistent period. Still a member of Blackburn Harriers, some of my contemporaries remain in fantastic condition and knocking out great race results week in week out. I feel a mixture of envy and admiration about that. For all the endless hours of running put in, I've never really fully embraced cross training and strength exercises and perhaps I'm paying for that now.
I've accepted competitive days are likely long gone, but I am always going to yearn to get out there and do a bit, setting modest targets.
It's not just about running, but where I run and the invigorating experience.
I have a deeply rooted connection to the geography of my part of the world with the Pennine Moors, Bowland and Pendle, North and West Yorkshire Dales, Cumbrian mountains, Howgills, North Wales, all reasonably accessible and being fit and able to explore them either running or walking is obviously something I would like to be doing for as long as I possibly can.
Fitness is a fragile state of being these days and yet very precious to me. Strenuous exercise on hilly open spaces is an addiction. Everything else clicks when I'm running, but without it I can drop away from my usually driven, comedial and happy go lucky self and become more insular, withdrawn and seek solace in San Miguel. 

SINGING THE BLUES

Thursday 3rd April 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1

Eagle Blues (182) 7-5 St George's Institute (169)
v JOHN IDDON W 21-11

Moved up to the first team from Eagle Reds to the Eagle Blues, a nervousness returned quite unexpectedly on my debut in one of the local league top flights.
Aside from wanting to make a good impression in a new team, our home green was running much quicker due to the current dry spell (the first proper one in over eighteen months by my reckoning) and the surface had been mowed a good bit harder.
As such there was just a bit of uncertainty as I set out in my match against the very characteristic delivery of left hander John.
John's quite a friendly chap to play against and to his disadvantage, that helped me settle down after a faultering first few ends.
Even during a sometimes scrappy affair, I was defensively sound again, allowing my opponent to just one double and he had to earn them too with two good ones.
Other than that, mostly I was at least putting one up close enough to score or save and despite a frustration at times of not sending up two to be chuffed with, a win is a win and helped the team edge to a home victory by thirteen chalks.
With the likes of Scott Taylor and Peter Tilley on the St George's teamsheet, John was by no means their toughest draw of the night. In fact I later discover he didn't quite manage a win in this division last year. That said, there are no easy games and it was good to get off to a winning start.