HONOURS EVEN

Over the last two evenings, there have been yet more clashes between Oakley and Cove in competitions. On Tuesday, Nicole Rogers, Mary Varndell, Ashley Nethercliffe and Fred Norris travelled to Cove to take on the rink of Terry Hart, Karen Cranham, Sarah Bowen and Chris Cranham in the later stages of the County rounds of the National Mixed Fours. Oakley were no doubt regarded as underdogs but the team all played well and ran out surprisingly comfortable winners by 22 shots to 12. In the Hampshire and IOW semi final, Oakley will be away to Moneyfields

Tonight saw Sean Lassman and Bob Goodyear take on Carl Taylor and Jim Marsland (substituting for Daniel Taylor) in the Area Final of the County Pairs at Aldershot Underwood. Again Cove started as favourites but when the Oakley pair scored 5 shots on the first 2 ends it was thought, for a fleeting moment, that a surprise might be on the cards. Cove, however, held their nerve and by 7 ends had taken a 1 shot lead. The game remained close and at 11 ends the scores were level at 8-8. For Oakley, however, that was as good as it got. Over the next 5 ends, a failure to get enough bowls in the head saw Cove score 15 unanswered shots and from then on it was an uphill struggle with Oakley eventually conceding with the score 12-26 at 20 ends.