The fairy tale possibility of Meersbrook Park avoiding relegation from the Hallamshire Division D took a remarkable turn on Tuesday (1st August) when the home team beat the previously undefeated, table topping, Whitely Woods by a score of 6-4.
On a night where any points would have been a bonus against by far the strongest team in the division, to win in the style the MP’s did was an incredible team achievement.
Relegation rivals Nether Edge B also did well against the division’s second place team, Fogey, losing 7-3, but the MP’s have closed the 10 point gap by 3 points and have a game in hand. Nether Edge have only one game remaining – a visit to Meersbrook Park in 2 weeks time.
Meersbrook Park play their penultimate game next week – a visit to winless, bottom placed, Crookes Social. Two wins in these matches and Meersbrook Park will have pulled off a really Great Escape.
Whitely Woods’ team featured 3 players in the Leagues top 20 individual rankings, and 2 more in the top 30. Eric Jackson is the top performing player in Division D. He has won all 14 of his matches and Agnes did well to reach 7 points. Jon managed 14 against the leagues 13th ranked player, Bob Matthews, and it seemed a heavy defeat was on the cards. However, Rodney “Cooler King” Ross defeated a fellow former county player to get the MP’s on the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, undetected by those guarding the league positions, Butch (the Forger) counterfeited a brilliant victory, for once coming out the right side of game going right to the barbed wire, emerging to collect his first win of the season, 21-19. The scores at the changeover were level, although the league leaders held a healthy aggregate lead.
That disappeared when “Tunnel King” Terry broke on to the green. He destroyed his 15th ranked opponent to 9, with a beautiful display of bowling.
“Big X” Tucker did likewise. Playing a longer mark to discomfort his opponent, Dave delivered some brilliant ends to win to 8 and the MP’s suddenly held not only the lead in wins but in aggregate too!
Jim “The Scrounger” would not lay down against his 21st division rankled opponent. Staring down a firing squad of excellent bowls he kept coming back, stealing ends from all over the green, and his opponent was relieved to get over the line to 18.
“The Mole” Mick only needed 12 points to make certain of the aggregate. He had started terribly but slowly (Mick does everything slowly, including walking across the centre of the green with 4 games in play) began to inch forward. He passed the 12 needed and still dug away; nearly winning! He was defeated at 20 across but a fine delivery from a player ranked 24th in the division.
This is a win which will draw breath across the bowling city. Truly the most remarkable result of the season and one which means we just have to dig out two more victories to ensure escape from what seemed to be certain relegation 3 weeks ago.