v DANIEL IDDON L 19-21
Up against young Danny again, but this time on his own patch, I was ticking over nicely and keeping hold of the advantage of a good start in what turned out to be a good game and tightly contested.
Despite temperatures still in to the eighties early evening and after a week of fierce heat, Penwortham's lush surface was still green and running nicely rather than absolutely screaming. I've always liked this green and whilst I'm fairly at ease on it these days, I still need a few more visits to iron out some marks that catch me out. Danny
picked out these weaknesses to nudge ahead just when it mattered, but I was disappointed not to have taken my chances to lead out well and keep my nose in front to the finish.
Aside from two dreadful ends when I just wasn't in the same postcode of where Danny sent us, I played quite well here and there were maybe four or five bowls in particular that were a sign of that early season wonderment when big shots came off.
Danny wasn't getting rattled this time though and if he was, he wasn't showing it. He stuck to his task and produced his most consistent bowls when they mattered.
At 18-14 and very much in the land of opportunity to push for the win, I went round peg down to the entrance, knowing full well my opponent had licked me down there earlier. But I like this mark too, however two bowls that weren't altogether shoddy were made to look so as Danny wrapped two around the jack.
I can only save next two ends against great leads and then down again having gone short, I get to nineteen first with a bowl that had to reach but also had to slow down. The land was good though and I knocked the jack through as Danny looked up to the heavens.
Then I had my jack called up for interfering with another game so was forced in to the entrance corner again. I say "forced", perhaps I should have waited to go somewhere else. I like to be bold, but it didn't pay off. My lead bowl ran over a little too much, my second bowl a little tight and once again Danny was unnecessarily close with both of his.
At 19-20 I've got my second bowl left to save the game. My first effort collides with Harry Derbyshire's bowl who was also trying to save his match at the same score. I thought I might have been a touch tight with it, but maybe not as I went a little wider with the retake and despite decent pace, my bowl wouldn't move inside and failed to cause any trouble.
I should have been rather cross with myself, but once again apathy took over rather than red mist. I'm grateful for that in some respects, but equally I don't want to lose my edge. Was I simply enjoying the game too much here that it ended up passing me by?
I felt I lost this match down to my own shortcomings, but equally Danny won it on his own merit. Some excellent bowls to get back on level terms and then putting up strong leads over longer marks that he knew I was struggling to deal with.
Two winners in the first four games looked promising for our team, but it didn't get better than that and so our poor run of results continues on this rerun of matches against the top sides of this league. We still look fairly safe but we could do with a decent result and start surprising ourselves again just to give everyone a boost really. As a team, we enjoy it when we win and can laugh about it when we lose but we don't want it to become nervous laughter.
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