A WEEKEND TO FORGET

"When troubles come they come not single spies but in battalions". Never were the Bard of Avon's words more apt for Oakley BC than this weekend. The 3-2 defeat on Saturday at Cove in the Men's National Top Club was perhaps anticipated but was followed on Sunday morning by a disappointing display against a less than full strength Alton Social team in the Tony Allcock Trophy. For most of the game it was close with Social leading by two shots at both 6 and 12 ends and for a moment at 15 ends Oakley took a one shot lead. That, however, was as good as it was to get with scores of six and four conceded over the final ends meaning Social emerged as winners by 38-31. Oakley scores: Mary Varndell, Angie Rowe, Bob Goodyear and Fred Norris lost 19-21, Janie Vickers, Sue Dixon, Ric Newson and Ted Brown lost 12-17

Sunday evening saw no let up in the gloom. Playing Alton in the County Mixed Top Club the game was always close but Heather Statham recorded an excellent win in the Women's singles against Linda Habberfield and although Ashley Nethercliffe lost out in the Men's Singles to John Blair an Oakley win still seemed likely as both the Pairs and the Triples were winning. Unfortunately a disastrous last end on the Triples saw Oakley lose a 21-17 lead and although the Pairs won, all the pressure was then on the Fours ( Sue Dixon, Angie Rowe, Sean Lassman and Spencer Kerley) to conjure something from a game in which they had trailed throughout. 17-21 down playing the last end, the game almost went Oakley's way. Holding four the Oakley skip's last bowl narrowly missed removing the nearest Alton bowl to score five and so the match went to an extra end. The Oakley front end set up a good position, which was destroyed by a running bowl which stayed with the jack, and although the last Oakley bowl was so close that the Oakley supporters began celebrating it was not good enough and Alton had won 3-2. A bad weekend came to an end .