A NIGHT TO FORGET

Thursday 24th July 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1: Frenchwood SC (192) 10-2 Eagle Blue (126)

v STEVE EDWARDS L 9-21

Sometimes the less said the better. But for reasons most likely irrational, I keep up this bowls match diary and therefore feel obliged to share at least a few paragraphs about my plight at Frenchwood this evening.

Fixed up with yet another rematch, having got the better of my opponent in the corresponding fixture in May I was never in the contest on Steve's home green of thirty years and the rest. 

Steve played a solid game here as one would expect, almost nonchalantly so at times as he seemed preoccupied by his captaincy role and paying more attention to other matches on the green than ours. 

That's how little I troubled him. It was disappointing. There was no fire there though on the night. I was meek and mild and just seemed to amble along, putting up with being second best. The concentration wasn't there and I seemed to have lost my competitive rage. I need that bit of rage to get on my game sometimes. A complicated balance of emotions required.

These aren't excuses. Perhaps I'd never beat Steve Edwards on Frenchwood in a month of Sundays but I could do much better than I did on the night and that's what left me smarting a bit. 

It's back to being tough school again in Leyland League's first division. Three defeats on the trot and the prospect of being dropped again. But on this form, I can have no complaints if I'm sharpening pencils for scoring duty next week.

Thankfully Steve Wilson and Aaron Hayhurst managed wins for two consolation points on an otherwise forgettable night for our team on Frenchwood's notorious slope.

This was my third visit here and I seem to be regressing. First time here I ran John Coupe close. Second time a bit hit and miss, but more miss in a doubles comp. This third appearance was just one to forget and move on. 

FINALLY GOT THE BETTER OF GRAHAM

MONDAY 21ST JULY 2025

CHORLEY & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-2: EAGLE & CHILD 'A' (151) 8-2 BLACK HORSE 'A' (125)

v GRAHAM ALTY 21-14

There's no doubt my ambitious yearnings can often outweigh my average ability. I've been out of the game for a week but expect to come back on fire from the off. It's not realistic. I am just John Sutton.

Graham gets two on the first end but I came back to 5-2, only to sloppily concede and it didn't take long to start getting cross with myself. Oh for a week off and returning mentally refreshed... I wasn't bowling well and went 8-12 down with woods then ceremoniously clunked in to the ditch. Sometimes though, as I have found on many occasions, that tension release can trigger a positive response and that was the case tonight.

Next time I got hold of the jack I decided to stretch Graham out a bit, who had been leading well on the short stuff and this seemed to work. I started racking the points up, one or two cheap ones perhaps but I came back and nudged ahead to then build up the confidence to mix it up a bit, play some of my favourite marks well and get on the front foot.

This was the third year in succession being drawn against Graham when up against the Black Horse. Two years ago he was better than me here. Last season I did the hard work but couldn't finish him off at his place. It was good to turn the tables this time around. It did feel like I was on the road to losing to him again at one point, but I was a completely different player in the latter half of the game.

With six winners and the aggregate ticked off, a very good night for our team and a third win in four matches gives us a little breathing space. A tough match at Westhoughton is next up and we are a few decent results from safety yet, but there would be no harm in looking up rather than down.

JUST A BABY COURGETTE ON MARROW'S PATCH

Thursday 10th July 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1: Chorley St Joseph's 'A' (194) 10-2 Eagle Blue (150)

v JACK MARROW L 10-21

Whilst entering a period of fragile form and flailing belief, an untimely visit to top of the table St Joe's was next on the card. One of the toughest matches of the season guaranteed and from this team of la crème, I was drawn against one of the crème de la crème in Jack Marrow.

All I could do was put the last two matches behind me and try to scrape out a reasonable account of myself. If I'm honest - and it's a terrible admission - I was already beaten as we shook hands to start. Self belief has shrunk so quickly of late that I pretty much knew I wasn't capable of pushing Jack as far as a more ambitious version of myself would've been gunning for a couple of weeks ago.

I think a reasonable account of myself was made though and I played some ends really well. That wasn't always good enough against Mr Marrow here on his own patch and I was a mere baby courgette aspiring to grow in to something big enough to compete. 

I was outclassed but, aside from repeatedly rolling my woods off the speedy south side of the green and not learning my lesson there, end for end I was in the game for the most part and even started to believe I could outdo my meagre aspirations for a fleeting moment mid-match when, only four down and holding a good two in the near corner, Jack put me back in my box with a remarkable winner to restore his authority.

Two winners for our team on the night was as good as it was probably going to get. Our captain Aaron played a blinder to beat Matt Kenyon and Steve Marginson's good form continued to beat Adam Walsh.

A week's holiday coming up now and a break from the green which will do no harm. At least I left with a feeling of climbing back up the rope. One win apiece versus Nigel in two close practice games the day before departure reinforced that feeling. If I wasn't bowling better again, games with Nige wouldn't have been so close. 

Maybe I've been dramatic. My game went to pot for a couple of matches and it might be nothing other than a mid-season blip. 

FORM DIP DIVES DEEPER

Monday 7th July 2025
CHORLEY & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-2:
Eagle & Child 'A' (137) 8-2 Coppull 'A' (109)
v DEREK LAITHWAITE L 8-21

Oh my goodness me. I thought at the least I couldn't play too much worse than last Thursday. But I think I actually managed it. How do I go from rolling close most of the time without really having to sweat about it, to leaving gaps you could get a car through - and on my home green too - in the space of less than a week?
Derek played an exceptional game here to be fair. I've seen him play a few times and I know full well he wins most of his games and certainly at this level. Even on a good night I would have been hard pressed to beat him. But I was never near to pressing him at all and that's what hurt really. On paper this had the making of a good game, but instead turned out to be the second most comprehensive result of the evening.
If I got the land correct I didn't get the length, if I found a length I missed the land and who am I kidding? More often than not I didn't find either! The visiting Coppullites and indeed one or two of my own contingent might have found humour in my gesticulations and wittering to myself, thinking nothing of airing a good old self-bollocking on a few occasions. But I was suffering out there tonight. It was far from an enjoyable experience and left me in a sort of helpless trance as the game petered out in to it's inevitable outcome. Dumbstruck as to why I was bowling so badly and couldn't even do the basics.
As bad as it got was having just reached the dizzy heights of eight and deciding to roll the jack just over twenty metres on one of the straightest peg marks our green has to offer. This from a serial round-pegger I might add. Simplifying the game for myself, surely I could finally put a good lead up?
As if. Off the land and short, I think I've done everything right to adjust with my second... which inconceivably rolls up against my crappy first one. The fact Derek most unusually let me off with just one on that end was inconsequential as he wrapped two around the jack on the next end to put me out of my misery.
I haven't had a hiding at the Eagle in league bowls like that for quite some time.
Confiding my feelings of bowling helplessness to our own Stevie Wilson, his wise words were to just, "put it in the bin" - "put last Thursday in the bin, put tonight in the bin and if you carry on playing crap, just keep putting in the bin! It's gone. Next game, it will click again eventually."
As Steve also pointed out, of course it happens in other sports and games. In football, strikers have spells when they can't hit a barn door, snooker players miss easy ones. There's often no explanation. It's a mystery of the feeling of confidence, which is not a permanent attribution and can suit itself when it comes and goes.
So grimly absorbed in my own plight, I admit to momentarily forgetting the far bigger and more important statistics of our excellent team result. It was certainly some consolation, with six winners, eight points taken and another victory that takes the heat off our relegation fears.
Although now up to sixth in this division of ten, we head a bottom five that is split by just two points. It's likely going to the wire, but the optimist in me says we should be looking ahead rather than behind and set our sights on trying to catch fifth placed Croston Subs.

I'll be missing next week, maybe that's no bad thing on current form.

HOME STRUGGLES STRIKE AGAIN

Thursday 3rd July 2025

LEYLAND & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-1:

Eagle Blue (186) 7-5 Brownedge (161)

v STUART FINNEY L 18-21

Starting the game unable to do any wrong and quickly stretching out in to a lead of 8-2, I lost my sense of length on a mark I normally reach well and then struggled thereon. Bowls weren't coming out of my hand smoothly or with any sort of assurance that I've got used to of late and I couldn't find a way back.

Part way through the match I realised I was wearing my shirt was inside-out. It was to be a night when I couldn't get much right. 

Left-hander Stuart grew in confidence and had every right to. He was on it, I wasn't, but he did leave opportunities that I didn't snap up which only added to my own frustrations.

After going behind by a few, somehow I recovered back to 16-16 and still in it, but then once again off the land with my lead bowl despite a good length, I'm then inexplicably yards over with my second. Stuart then added a couple more to get to the brink and was hitting road and length very well to keep the pressure on. I scratched a couple more singles together and then went for a mark that I thought might catch a lefty out. My lead left room and my opponent filled the gap to perfection. Stuart played well and deserved the win.

This game has left me scratching my head a bit. Having an off night is one thing, but to start the match still carrying good form and then completely lose it in the flash of one end... it was strange. Concentration sapped and I just totally lost my length and sense of what the hell I was doing really.

Home turf struggles continue. I can't blame the green, it's in great nick although different depending on a cut, but I should be able to handle that by now. I'll have to put it down to a bad night and relent that you can't win 'em all.

Sometimes in sport and competitive games you need knocking a step backwards to take the next steps forward and I've got to believe that, knuckle down to practice and put things right next game.

Scoring eighteen wasn't a bad return given the circumstances and helped our team take the aggregate scores to win a close match of five winners each. 

MICK'S BIRTHDAY CANDLES SNUFFED OUT

Monday 30th June 2025

CHORLEY & DISTRICT LEAGUE DIV-2:

Eagle & Child 'A' (149) 7-3 Bretherton 'A' (131)

MICK HAWORTH W 21-8

Of the whole Bretherton line-up, I didn't really want to face Mick. Far too familiar with each other and rarely serious about anything, knuckling down to league bowls with team points at stake seemed a difficult zone to get in to. We played once before in a pre-season game although that didn't matter quite as much. 

But business is business and I certainly couldn't have Mick beating me on my own patch or I would never hear the last of it.

Despite conceding the first end to a good bowl, I got back in straight away and made a good lead. I've been playing well and made things difficult for Mick who notoriously doesn't have a very good success rate at the Eagle.

Was it not for a few slightly short bowls that were on the right trajectory and a couple of very tight measures, Mick could have made more of a nuisance of himself in this game but in the end it was a relatively comfortable victory. 

Hands shook, San Miguel's cracked open... it was only then that Mick reveals it's his 60th birthday and that I've just ruined it! I thought that ship had already sailed when he flew away for a city break at the weekend. I'm grateful he didn't tell me before the game so at least I didn't knowingly snuff out his birthday candles. 

This fixture we was an important win for the team and completed a points stalemate against Bretherton over these two back-to-back matches. Coppull next up at home and another must win fixture if we are to resemble a side that looks like they could stay up.