Captain Terry has always made it clear that the Friday Night Works League is to be used to give new players an experience of league bowls – with no pressure to gain a result. But there is no harm in winning while that experience is gained – and win is exactly what Meersbrook Park did on Friday (30th June) evening when they travelled to North Derbyshire to take on Cliffe Park in Dronfield.
A team containing 5 players in their first season recorded an exceptional 9-1 victory. Away wins of this magnitude are rare in Crown Green Bowling – playing on unfamiliar greens, especially for the first time, is challenging, to say the least. Meersbrook Park set about the Cliffe Park green with surprising familiarity.
The first doubles pair to start were Jim and Steve S. A new partnership, but Jim looked as happy as he does holding a pint of cider and Steve was bossing midfield like he (reputedly) does when playing football. They always seemed in control and ran out worthy winners – Steve’s first win in the leagues is sure to be the first of many.
Agnes, who had been the MP’s only winner in her last outing, but had been painting London red every night since, was the night’s only loser. She actually bowled well, especially considering her lack of sleep, but, for once, it wasn’t to be her night. In the other preliminary singles, Jon once again rode his luck, relaxing a big lead before squeezing out a narrow win.
The shoots of a 2-1 lead for Meersbrook Park has failed to bloom into an overall victory in many fixtures this year but at Dronfield this never looked likely to be the case.
Andrew was absolutely ruthless. His new delivery routine, which includes a 3 minute snog with each wood, made up for what it lacked in romance with effect. End after end he bothered the jack and secured a rapid win with one of the best performances by any Meersbrook Park bowler this season. The margin of his success gave those spectating confidence in securing the additional aggregate points. As it happened there was no danger of the aggregate being lost as further wins were to follow.
Chalking another win in the format, Paul T is building a reputation as a doubles specialist, . Its easy to be a double specialist when playing with Paul J though! The two Paul’s, playing in red, were on fire. Although they accumulated mostly in 1’s, their game was something of a massacre – running out winners to 6.
Terry finished off the evening successfully, despite facing a solid opponent who was hard to follow on account of his playing with Lawn Green bowls. Terry stuck to his own game and finished strongly to secure an incredible team victory.
The nature of match scoring in the Friday Leagues is slightly different to Monday Social League despite both formats consisting of four singles and two doubles games.
In both leagues, each of the 6 games counts one point towards the overall match score – a spread of 6 points between the two teams. In the Monday League a further two points are awarded to the team with the highest Aggregate of all individual game scores in the fixture. Its possible therefore that a team which only won 2 matches of the 6 could still have scored the most points, (if their wins were of a high margin and their loses were narrow defeats,) and thus secure both aggregate points. A total of 8 points are divided between teams on Mondays.
In the Friday league the aggregate is treated differently. The cumulative singles scores earn two aggregate points AND the cumulative doubles scores earn a further two aggregate points. Thus, 10 points are divided between the two teams.
At Dronfield, Meersbrook Park collected all four aggregate points (two from singles and two from doubles) and so won 9-1. A brilliant away performance!