HARD GOING TO PICK UP ANOTHER WIN

Thursday 30th April 2026

Leyland & District League Div-1: Hoghton (145) 3-7 Eagle Blues (180)

v GEOFF PICKUP W 21-16

No offence to my opponent here, but this was more of a battle against the green itself. To say the surface at Hoghton was running would be quite some understatement - it was absolutely bloody screaming.
I knuckled down to practice from the clubhouse end, stroked the jack gently out of my hand towards the longer sided far end and couldn't believe it trickling on, and on and on before clunking in to the gutter. "Wow! F*ck me!!", was blurted out, and whilst my proverbial French ought to be pardoned, it was nonetheless a reasonable reaction under the circumstances.
Wild surfaces like this feel a bit too much to deal with. If greens were like this all the time, I doubt I'd be as keen. It's like the whole judgement element of the game becomes almost unattainable most of the time - or at least for the likes of me, anyway. A bowl a yard off the target is deemed a good one in these conditions and whilst I survived tonight to fight back and win the game, there was little joy in the evening other than digging out the result itself and for our fine team success on the night.
Two previous visits to Hoghton have ended in defeat and whilst I don't have a "bogey green" as such, this one has the potential to be. The green is a decent length looking out from the clubhouse, but quite narrow width ways and with a fair old bump of a crown in the middle of it. It's tricky and even more so when it's been continuously sunbaked.
I played Geoff here a couple of years ago so had an idea what to expect from my opponent, but wasn't sure what to expect from myself. I think Geoff got a good lead on me that time, although I came back and even got myself in front before distinctly remembering a frustration at not winning the match. A similar pattern evolved tonight, but with a happier ending.
Early on it was so difficult to get in to a rhythm. Both of us were struggling to keep the jack on the green, other games seemed to get in our way and whilst joking that I was going to chuck my bowls over the hedge because I'd had enough, in actual fact I stayed quite relaxed and saw the funny side. I just thought, even if I get battered here and don't send a single decent bowl all night then so what? I can't let it overshadow what's been a great start to the season so far.
At 7-11 I put two good ones up at last and asked our Lenny the score, whilst having a bit of a soul searching rant to him as well. Then Geoff plants a great bowl to cancel them out and it's 7-12. But I took some encouragement at having sent a couple of bowls I was pleased with. On a very short and curly end that I would have had measured otherwise, Geoff fails to drop off the crown and twice, unfairly blaming a nearby teammate in my opinion. But he left me with as a easy two as I was going to get all night and then I started to put some decent bowls up with more consistency, grabbing another two to draw close before keeping hold of the block for quite a few more ends to push in to the lead and put the squeeze on Geoff for a change.
As the sun dipped in to the horizon the green just started to tame slightly and this caught me out when getting myself towards the finish line with a couple of ends where I was badly short. But I didn't let it rattle me, managed to break Geoff straight away and keep picking up the singles to get me over the line. My last bowl did well to beat Geoff's good lead, pegging off the crown down the right side sloping edge. Geoff played through to hit something and only found the gap in between. It was a relief to get the win and come off. Although I tend to remember the bad ends more than the good, I'd done pretty well there to turn things around to 14-4 in my favour after that chat with Lenny.
It was tough for all the first four matches on in particular. We were all struggling. The green dampened off as the darkness set in, taking the edge off it a bit but still difficult to play. It did the home side no favours though as Eagle Blues ended up with an amazing result, taking seven wins and the aggregate. Matt Hoyles turned around a 2-12 deficit to win 21-14, but the stand-out performances that I got to watch myself later on were Aaron Hayhurst's victory over Gareth Whittle and Chris Thompson taking another notable away scalp in Chris Miller Jnr. We sit an incredible third place in the table, with all the big boys to play still, but even so, quite a feat from a side with little more pre-season ambition than keeping heads above the relegation waters again.

For me personally, the first time I have won five games in a row in one particular league and the first time I've won six league games on the spin overall. April has been quite a month. 

Meanwhile on the individual merit front - a systematic averages table which I have been a little dismissive about in the past and more so in the lower divisions - well I have to take some interest in it just now after sealing another week at the very top of the Leyland & District pile. In second place sits the lad from next door, Aaron, so our avenue is clearly a dominant force in central Lancashire crown green bowls just now! Aaron's name is meant to be there of course, he was fourth overall last season. Perhaps not so my own though and whilst it's actually quite ridiculous really, it's also still good fun while it lasts.