A hard fought 6-4 victory over Crookes Social on Tuesday (8th August) evening means Meersbrook Park will take their battle against relegation to the wire in the final game of the Hallamshire League Division D season when they entertain Nether Edge B in a winner takes all match for survival.
The win was the MP’s third on the bounce and means they face Nether Edge undefeated in 4.
Last week Meersbrook Park rocked the league by defeating leaders Whiteley Woods. Anyone calculating a one sided match against bottom placed and winless Crookes Social was hugely mistaken. The match was every bit as tough as the one against Whiteley and bore several resemblances. The score was the same, 6-4. Meersbrook Park again won on aggregate after 4 wins a piece – an indicator of a strong team effort where every point counted.
It was clear from their roll up that the Crookes line-up contained 5 or 6 very strong players. Butch drew the toughest in game one. From where I sat, Butch played at least as well as he did when gaining his first league win of the season against Whiteley. BowlsNet will show he “only” scored 10 points but I don’t think any Meersbrook player bowled as close to the jack. His opponent, Chris Cottyn, was fantastic. He is ranked 8th in the league and on an undulating home green resembling the foothills of the Austrian Alps, looked utterly unbeatable.
Our own Paul Newman, Rodney, was also struggling on the terrain and against their second highest rank player. Rod was a long way behind, something like 13-5 I think, before he became able to conquer the endless crowns and heroically battled to win to 19. It was Rodney’s 8th win of the season – the first Meersbrook Park player to reach this mark and whatever happens next week he is our Player of the Season.
Andrew played superbly on some ends but his consistency was not quite enough to overcome another decent opponent on home turf. On home dirt too – as there were lots of patches where grass was as extinct as Meersbrook Parks chances of survival looked to be 6 weeks ago after the 10 nil hammering at Fogey.
Jim at least had an easier game against an opponent without a win in her 12 preceding matches. Jim, ever the gentleman, kept that run going. He bowled some lovely deliveries and quickly build up a 20-7 lead before hitting some turbulence and slipping to 21-11.
The match was in the balance, 2-2 at the turnover with aggregate scores slightly favouring the home team in what was a must win match for Meersbrook Park.
After a long wait for his opponent to appear, Mick was wishing he hadn’t. Mick struggled to master the green and lost to 9. The hour called for heroes. Cometh the hour cometh the man. Two of them, in fact.
Runner Up to Rodney for Player of the Year should be Tucker. He is on fire at the moment and his massive 21-3 victory did much to secure the aggregate points. He criss-crossed the green with Captain Marvel, Terry. Terry had lost to the same opponent on the same green just a few weeks earlier but continued his scintillating form to make nonsense of that result and carry Meersbrook Park to the brink of victory, winning 21-6.
Jon’s game was last to finish. Playing Crookes third highest ranked player, and father of their best player, who had defeat Butch, Jon lost to 17, which was plenty enough points to secure the aggregate for the team and another 6-4 win.
And so, back to Meerbrook Park next Tuesday where the winner will survive. A 5-5 draw is theoretically possible, but very rare – that would mean Nether Edge stay up, so Meersbrook Park will have to do what they have done for the last two matches and win at least 4 games and get everybody to count for the aggregate.
The Escape Committee will be planning hard and have done well to arrange a home game for what may be the greatest escape in Sheffield Bowling History!