MENS SECTION 2008 SEASON
MATCH REPORTS
BOGNOR REGIS B.C. V HOTHAM B.C 12TH JULY 2008
It was a lovely sunny , wind free day at the Square for the return match between our closest rivals and green sharers, The green was being shared by Hotham ladies v Pagham ladies so a draw was made for choice of rinks. The ladies drew 2 and 6. This meant Bognor had to play rink 1 a notoriously difficult green playing East/West.
As there was no home advantage to either side we always knew that this match would be close and fought well.
Rink 1 proved to be our Achilles heel with Bob Heys boys having drawn the short straw for the rink proving no real match to John Whitfield team. From the off they were up against it and really it was always going to be damage limitation to preserve the overall score. And thus it finished 11-26.
However this dent in our overall effort was not to be fatal as Rinks 3,4 and 5 fought hard from the start and established early leads. On Rink 3 Arthur Richardsons men , going for a 4th straight win started brightly and maintained this throughout the game coming home 24-11 winners. This result though was eclipsed by Ron Gardners team glad to have Ron back excelled themselves beating a good Tony Sayers quartet 29-8 and claiming the pens again.
The real nail biter was on rink 4 with Tommy Gaskins men holding on for a well deserved win. They had the best of the early exchanges and were 20-8 up. However a spirited reply by Steve Meads boys back to 20-16 with one end to go saw a fairly tense final end. Going West to east on the 21st end Hotham were holding 2 with one wood to go so Steve killed the end with an accurate strike to give them a chance with a new end East West having given the jack to Bognor. This was very close with Bognor only having one wood in the head with Steve to play his last wood. If he could roll this wood out they would have enough shots to clinch victory. He was slightly unlucky missing by a whisker and a much relieved Tommy and indeed the rest of the Bognor boys breathed a sigh of relief winning 20-17 and took 8 points off Hotham for the first time that I remember.
The final tally 3 rinks to 1 , 84 shots to 62 , 8 points to 2 and a welcome boost to Bognors points tally.
So the next game is home to Worthing is a must win and ten points would be welcome
Come on Bognor- we are not going down
Well done
Dave Parker
Mens Captain 2008