Bears rue bad start as they start Middleton Cup campaign with narrow defeat at Leamington

A nightmare start ensured Warwickshire men lost their opening Middleton Cup fixture of the summer, going down 109-106 to Gloucestershire at Royal Leamington Spa BC.

Their slugglish opening saw the Bears trailing by a whopping 33 points at one stage, and although they produced a valiant fightback, it wasn’t enough as they claimed just six points from the match.

Mark Smith (Avenue Leamington), Jordan Ward (Rugby), Luke Horne and Adam Smith (both Avenue Leamington) had a tight start and were a shot down at the midway stage.

A seven shot scoring spree that included a six saw them race 14 shots clear, the visitors took a treble but a last end single saw Smith’s rink win 26-14.

Aiden Maries (Avenue Leamington), Will Brundle (Welford), Mark Ireland (Avenue Coventry) and Andy Walters (Welford) were six shots down after eight ends but slid to eight down with seven ends to go.

Four singles and a double took Walters and co to two shots behind with two ends to play. A four and double saw the Bears come from behind to win 18-14.

Ewan Mason (Rugby), Dan Ellicott (Avenue Leamington), Andy Sparkes (Whitnash) and Tom Millership (Avenue Coventry) found themselves eight shots down after three ends but reached parity three ends later.

A good spell for Gloucestershire saw them score 13 unanswered shots, and Millership’s rink replied in kind pulling back to one down with two ends left.

The visitors took the penultimate end with a single but a last end double snatched the victory for the Bears, final score 23-22.

Andy Prickett (Welford), Steve Merrett (Avenue Coventry), Alan Prew and Dan Box (both Welford) had a tight start but reached the 12th end five shots clear.

With two ends to go the lead had been cut to two, a treble and double against saw Box and co go down 13-16.

Keith Avery (Avenue Coventry), Lewis Gardner (Whitnash), Keith Wooding and Graham Ashby (both Avenue Coventry) were 10 shots down after six ends but halved the deficit with five ends to play.

With two ends left the deficit was still five but Gloucestershire finished with a single and double to consign Ashby’s rink to a 14-22 loss.

Jacob Mills, Tom Wheeler (both Rugby), Adam Shuttleworth (Whitnash) and Craig Carter (Rugby) only scored one shot in the first nine ends, dropping 13 shots.

A treble and six cut the deficit to four but a strong finish saw Carter and co go down 12-21.