Last bowl agony for Warwickshire in Middleton Cup opener

Aiden Maries (Avenue Leamington), Will Brundle (Welford), Keith Wooding and Mark Ireland (both Avenue Coventry) got off to a good start, seven shots up at the midway stage. The next seven ends were all taken with singles, only one for the opposition, taking Ireland and co twelve shots ahead. A double for the Bears followed by both sides getting singles gave them a 22-8 victory. Alan Prew (Welford), Darren Ward (Rugby), Andy Sparkes (Whitnash) and Martin Timms (Welford) reached ten ends two shots down but scored a trio of doubles to move four ahead. With two ends left Timms’ rink still held a four shot advantage, the hosts nabbed a couple of singles but couldn’t stop a 17-15 win.

Ian Billington (Whitnash), Steve Merrett, Scott Ashby and Graham Ashby (all Avenue Coventry) recovered from a slow start to move a shot clear after ten ends. A good six end spell for Gloucestershire saw the take a six shot lead, with two ends left the scores were level, a single took the penultimate end for the hosts but Ashby and co levelled the game with a single, final score 17-17. Keith Avery (Avenue Coventry), Andy Manning (Nuneaton), Adam Shuttleworth (Whitnash) and Tom Millership (Avenue Coventry) were seven shots down after twelve ends but cut that down to two with a single and four. With one end left Millership’s rink were a shot down but dropped a single to finish 14-16 down.

Mark Smith, Derek Maries, Luke Horne and Adam Smith (all Avenue Leamington) dropped a third end six but recovered trail by two with twelve ends gone. With two ends left the deficit had grown to seven, Smith and co scored a treble but their last end was the last to finish and saw the agony of the Gloucestershire skip needing to get a shot to win the game, a good bowl saw him take a double, winning the rink 21-15. Andy Prickett, Chris Brereton, Dan Box and Andy Walters (all Welford) also dropped an early six to reach nine ends twelve shots adrift. A good spell saw them cut the deficit to six with four ends to play but the hosts took all four with singles to sink Walters’ rink 24-14.