CONFIDENCE BRIMS AGAIN

Monday 20th July 2026

Chorley & District League Div-2: Black Horse 'A' (137) 4-7 Eagle & Child 'A' (139)

v BARRY HALTON W 21-12

Confidence was back and what a strange thing confidence is. When confidence blankets all negative thoughts and yet doesn't quite overstep the mark in to the territory of cockiness, it is a wonderful and powerful thing - in crown green bowls it is, anyway.
I can send the odd bad bowl and not get worked up about it because I know I can send my next one better. In this frame of mind I'm not a bad bowler at all. This will no doubt be a temporary phase again, but a fourth win in a row in all competitions, four in a row in the Chorley league and in victory over Barry Halton, certainly not easy pickings and particularly on his home patch.
Barry might have played better games I'm sure, but I managed to keep the pressure on him and break any opportunities he had to keep hold of the jack. Tactically I got it right too. I can get carried away round pegging, just because that's all I tend to do in practice, but I mixed it up a bit in this game. Besides, Barry's best woods of the evening tended to be on the more extreme dropping marks and on this challenging Black Horse green that I have grown to really enjoy playing, there aren't many straight peg marks that are straight forward either.
It felt like a close game and end for end it was. It came as a surprise when I heard "all-but" which was a good thing because I must've been just playing my game rather than being hung up with the scores. It was equally surprising to find I'd won by such a decent margin, so a really good win here.
My match was the last one on and leading up to It, I was still scoring Vernon Robinson's game against former Eagle veteran Tony Dobson which was an epic battle. Only thirty chalks scored between them on the first twenty-five ends, it went to the wire with Vernon playing very well, but his late fightback was pipped on the final deciding end. So one hour and twenty minutes later - finally Barry and I could crack on.
It would turn out that the team gained a much needed match win by just two points on the aggregate, so just as well I wrapped my game up when I did. Captain Margy was most pleased with me and said I can play again next week!
Whilst still third in the table despite a bad home defeat to Mawdesley in my absence last week, points-wise we need to build a bit of momentum now for we are only as far off the perilous zone of the bottom two as the fading second promotion place above us.