FOUR COUNTY TITLES FOR OAKLEY

Following on from the success earlier in the season of Nicole Rogers and Heather Statham in winning the Women's Junior Pairs, Oakley players this weekend embarked on a quest to see if they could make this the Club's best ever season in County Competitions. A second title was already guaranteed when, on Friday evening in an all Oakley Final, Nicole beat Heather 21-10 to lift the Junior Singles title for the fourth successive year.. Saturday saw Nicole first up, as she took on Jackie Kingston of Andover in the Two Wood Singles Final, an event in which Nicole had finished runner up last year. It looked as if history was to repeat itself when Jackie stormed into 12-3 lead after 10 ends but somehow Nicole dragged herself back into the game and, apart from dropping a two on the 14th end, dominated the remaining ends to win 16-14 after a high quality game.. Ric Newson also made a poor start in the Men's Singles losing early shots to Boscombe Cliff's Alan Geary and finding himself staring down the barrel 4-18 down. Although Ric rallied, Alan was still in control and holding game only for Ric to have a stroke of good fortune pushing a bowl up the green to save the match. The momentum now swung and when, at 15-19, Ric scored a four it looked as he might complete a stunning comeback. It was not to be. Both players came close on what was to be the final end but it was Alan who scored the 2 shots for a 21-19 victory. Oakley's slow starts continued in the Women's Pairs where Nicole Rogers and Heather Statham found themselves 4-10 against Cove's Karen Cranham and Donna Taylor. Lifting their game Oakley moved into a 19-12 lead but Cove fought back to reduce the deficit to one shot as the final end commenced. It was now anyone's game but fortunately, from an Oakley perspective, both Oakley players delivered close bowls to emerge triumphant in what had been a close encounter. Oakley's attention now turned to the Men's Junior Singles and Ashley Nethercliffe made a good start taking a 5-1 lead against the 2018 Champion Southsea Waverley's Danny Smith. The scores were tied at 6-6 but losing a three and a four in successive ends put Ashley on the back foot and try as he did he could not overhaul an in form Danny going down to defeat 12-21. The final event involving Oakley saw Nicole taking to the green for the third time as joined by Heather and Alice they took on the Waterside triple skipped by Janet Ballard who earlier had beaten Margaret Holden to win the Women's Singles. It was soon evident that this was not to be the girl's day. If it could go wrong it did and soon they found themselves 0-15 down but they plugged away and at 8-20 and holding five, following a fine bowl by Alice, there was an outside chance of a recovery but Janet had other ideas and ditched the bare jack, after which there was no way back for the three youngsters who were playing their final game together. Thus ended the County Finals from an Oakley perspective. Four titles and four runners up represented by a large margin the Club's best ever season and all who reached the Finals have been a credit to the Club. Well done.