Henley Still Top of League Despite 2 Losses

Henley Bowling Club visited Hagbourne last Wednesday (9 August), in a five mixed triples Plomer Cup league match winning on two rinks, losing on three with an overall score of 69 – 96. This gave Henley 4 Plomer Cup points to Hagbourne’s 8. Colin Ward with Jeanie Davies and Steve Sullivan played a very positive game leading from the start and never looked back, running our winners 22-18. Gill Robins with Rod Grant and Simon Hatcher faced very strong opposition and were behind throughout the match going down 8-29. Peter Borsberry with Angelika Crisa and Kevin Browne were evenly matched with the score at 9-10 on the thirteenth end but when the opposition scored 5 shots on the fourteenth end it gave them the edges and even though Henley’s scored a 4 on the seventeenth end they still lost 14-17. Kevin Currill with Romy Painter and Norman Daniells had a difficult start and did not score until the fifth end and, when the opposition picked up 3 and 5 shots on the ninth and tenth end, they could not make up the difference and went down 10-22. Dave Wilson with Richard Kingston and Sally Daniells were ahead by 7 shots after ten ends and held on to their lead running out winners 15-10.

On Saturday 12 August, Henley entertained Didcot in a five mixed triples Plomer Cup match winning on all rinks with a score of 117-51, resulting in a maximum of twelve points for Henley. Peter Borsberry with Martin Cranstoun and Sally Daniells were again the highest winning rink starting strongly, were 10 up at after ten ends, then increased their lead by a further 11 shots over the next two ends running out winners 32-10. Kevin Currill with Jeanie Davies and Peter Falle dropped a 3 on the first end then scored regularly to be well up after fourteen ends with a score of 26-5. They then dropped 5 over the final ends to run out winners with 26-10. Andy Scott with Joan Edwards and Nigel Bridges scored steadily and were 15-3 up after ten ends and won with a score of 23-9. Norman Daniells with Simon Hatcher and Trish Jones struggled at the start and were 1-8 down after five ends. However, from the sixth end, Didcot failed to score and Henley ran our winners with a score of 18-8. Colin Ward with Steve Sullivan and Angelika Crisa were fairly evenly matched after thirteen ends at 11-10. They picked up a 3 on the next end and held onto the lead win with a score of 18-14.

On Sunday 13 August, Henley played Caversham in a five mixed triples Plomer Cup match, only winning on two rinks and going down by twenty four shots with score of 77-101. This gave 4 Plomer Cup points to Henley and 8 to Caversham. Dave Wilson with Martin Cranstoun and Angelika Crisa were 5-5 after eight ends then pulled away, scoring regularly to finish highest winning rink at 26-9. Norman Daniells with Kevin Browne and Jeanie Davies started slowly and after nine ends were down by 4-10. By end thirteen they had pulled ahead to 14-10 but Caversham then levelled the scores by end fifteen. However, Henley managed to just pull ahead by the eighteenth end to win 19-15. Kevin Currill with Sally Daniells and Peter Falle started slowly and were 2-13 down after nine ends. Although they pulled back to just 2 down by the sixteenth end, they couldn’t maintain their momentum and dropped 3 over the last couple of ends to lose 15-20. Andy Scott with Steve Sullivan and Joan Edwards were fairly evenly matched at 10-11 after twelve ends and were just 3 down going into the final end but then dropped a 6 to lose 13-22. Peter Borsberry with Simon Hatcher and Glynis Holland dropped a 6 on the first end and never recovered, going down 4-35.

Despite only winning one out of the three Plomer Cup games in the last week, it looks like Henley may just be at the top of the Plomer Cup league table with Caversham second and Watlington third. With still 2 matches to go, any one of league’s six teams could win.