Meersbrook Park’s fight to retain Hallamshire Division D status took another blow on Midsummer’s Eve at High Hazels with a 9-1 loss.
After a day of very heavy showers the High Hazels turf was a rich green and bowls and feet were audibly having to squish their passage as the home team warmed up. As the evening progressed, lovely sunlight helped fasten the green, which was in great condition – maintained by the same Greenkeeper as our own – Bill Smith.
In the first wave of singles Terry and Agnes started magically, Agnes in particular bewitching her bowls in an incredibly high-quality match. Terry also got in front and was never far away from the jack. Andrew and Jim however got behind early and neither reached top form, while putting in a decent displays; Jim going on to make 13. Terry fell under a spell and was dragged back and forth in front of the clubhouse for 7 or 8 ends as the game was taken out of his reach. A couple of the ends looked short to those spectating, and without the jack Terry went down to 11.
Jon was the first of the 2nd wave of players to get on. After the first end his opponent warned him that “some players are very stickily about the rules and will use all kinds of tricks to win”. The description proved autobiographical and was epitomised by a bizarre end which may offer some important lessons for a new player.
Jon called for the long tapes after his opponent delivered a diminutive jack. The tapes proved Jon’s query well-founded (not for the last time in the match) and Jon was awarded the jack which he sent off towards a far corner. Jon then erroneously followed the jack with his first bowl, which his opponent immediately called as a “dead wood”, since, by the rules, it was his opponent that should have delivered the first bowl. You may think that a player would simply ask Jon to take back his bowl, without declaring it dead, but his opponent was (apparently) well within his rights to insist the wood “dead”. Jon accepted the punishment and questioned what happened to the said, dead wood, which lay less than 3 feet from the jack. “Its dead, leave it there,” he was told. Jon offered to collect it, but the offer was declined.
His opponent, having turned down the suggestion that the dead wood be removed, then launched his first bowl, landing about 4 feet from the jack. Jon sent his only wood, which flicked off his “dead wood” and landed next to the jack. His opponent objected, saying the dead wood had interfered – which clearly it had, but Jon pointed out that he had asked what to do and had offered to remove the offending wood before any bowl had been sent but his opponent had played with the dead wood on the green. His opponent said something about it may have to be a dead end. However, he was still willing to play his 2nd wood to see if he could win the end. He failed, and Jon’s wood was scoring. But now the opponent insisted that the end be called “dead”. It was curious he had chosen to bowl two woods to a “dead end” and the assertion that the end be called dead was only made after he had lost it.
To finish this bending of the rules to a two and a half bias curl on a turning green, he then announced that he should retain the jack for the next end!
Your humble reporter can offer no certainty on what the rules do actually say for this unfortunate turn of events, but he does suggest that, against such intrigue, one establishes what the correct course of events is unequivocally before play continues.
The end did not decide the match at least, Jon’s opponent being the far superior player on the night, thrashing Jon to 10.
By this time Agnes had completed a fairylike victory which, despite very well played games from Tucker (16), Rodney (12) and Butch (13), was the only point the MP’s brought home.
Next week is a vital, must-win home match against Colley, who are currently one place above Meersbrook Park in the table and whom must be overhauled if we are to survive in Division D for next season.