With the opening weekend of fixtures in the county championship finding sunny but chilly weather I headed up to the West Pennine’s to watch Lancashire host Merseyside. It was the kind of weather where if you were out of the sun you shivered and if you were in the sun you burnt.
Lancashire used one of their biggest greens, at Horwich RMI, for their home game against Merseyside. They had used this against Merseyside in 2017 to great success on the way to a 62-point home victory.
Although it was a sunny day there was also a cool breeze, and the green had dried out to a light green colour. The Lancashire men look down in some confusion as the green they had practised all week had been cut on the day of the game and looked yards quicker.
This is not something I’m in favour of this as it makes you wonder why the home team spent so much time practising when they were going to play on a different surface. The green is one of the largest in crown green bowls with it being easy to fit in two legal marks going in any direction on the green. However, with the late trimming off the grass this takes away some of the difficulty in reaching into the heavier parts of the green. The green did look lovely to play, and it is a green I know well, and they have had problems in the last few years with the local foxes digging at the surface, but this is now all fixed and it is back to looking immaculate.
John Crossley 21 Phil Lee 20
This game this game was very close and as you can tell by the score of 21-20 to John it could have gone either way. Phil got away to a good start and John had to use his green knowledge to edge into the lead using the difference in speeds on a pegging mark to his advantage. In truth both players continued throughout the game to throw in the odd bad end and Phil duly kept one of his until the last end of the game to give John victory.
Stuart Hodson 16 Wayne Ditchfield 21
This was thought to be warm of Merseyside’s best players on the green as Wayne has previously had success in competitions on this green. It was Stuart who had the better start and let Wayne past halfway however Wayne used his better knowledge over a distance to eek ahead.
Martin Robinson 21 Danny Barwise 11
This was a game decided by Martin finding a mark on the green that Danny could not decipher. Going towards the heavy corner Danny just could not remember to reach and was giving Martin easy points. Going away from this corner Martin was playing over a ridge so it was a job of trying to find a precise length.
David Billington 21 Andy Hayes 19
This game attracted a fair bit of betting interest as Andy was thought to be a long price at 5/4. It was Dave who started so well on a mark that suited his left-handed delivery playing up and over a rise in the green much to Andy’s confusion. I think Dave led 12-2 at one point but Andy when he was able to get the jack off Dave made it more of a corner battle. It could have gone either way at the end but Dave found a slippery mark on the last end to claim the win.
With these first four games Lancashire lead by eight points at home on were no doubt happy to hear that they had also started well with three winners out of four and a lead off 23 away on the Wirral.
Darren Allsop 13 Stephen Glover 21
This was a game where Steven was in charge from the start, and he would not let Darren off his hook. No matter what Darren tried he found that Steven had an answer and Stephen led well.
Roy Webster 19 John Hignett 21
Oh, this was a battle played all over the green with both short and long marks used by both. Just as it seemed that Roy had an advantage John upped his game to claim the winning points.
Alex Power 21 Ryan Semmens 5
After a slightly wayward first end Alex took charge of this game using a long straight mark into the heavy corner and forcing left-handed Ryan to search for land and length. With Alex racing into a big lead no matter what Ryan tried did not come off and Alex pulling away for an easy win.
Ian Grady 14 John Dalziel 21
This game was actually closer suggested as John was just able to win the close ends. Ian is not one of the Lancashire men who know this screen the best. This meant he was unable to put John’s left hand delivery to a disadvantage.
With this sharing of the games in the middle block it meant that Lancashire had a lead of 7 points heading into the last games here. Better news for the Merseyside men came from the home game on the Wirral. At their home venue off Upton Victory Hall Bowling Club, they managed to win all of the middle block games. The 23-point early deficit had been turned into a 10-point advantage and Merseyside led by 3 points overall.
Liam Gregson 21 George Curran 18
This was another game where George was trying to play his favourite short marks and Liam was looking to play quite a bit further. It remained close throughout boot show marks George was having a problem sending his bowls properly, in truth they were very wobbly at times.
Andy Topping 12 Matty Gartside 21
To be fair to Andy he never really got going in this game as Matty found good leads from the start. Matty was happy to play something like a 25-metre length and Andy was trying to find success going quite a bit further.
Tim Hodge 13 Liam McEgan 21
This was similar to the previous game but in reverse as Tim, who’s trying to find a shorter mark compared to Liiam’s 10 metre further marks. Liam was using a new set of bright orange bowls which seemed to glide across the surface and finished next to the yellow Jack in a colourful way.
George Chadwick 21 Dan Lofthouse 16
The last game of the match so Dan trying to find a shorter length straight mark against George. In truth neither led well until George found the same mark that Martin Robinson used. This meant a four- or five-point deficit in his game look like it was going to be a comfortable win until Dan was able to get the Jack and a few more points and get Merseyside over the winning line.
When all the adding up was completed it showed that Merseyside had managed to win by two points here in Lancashire and by 12 points at their home venue. I think the preparation off the green, whilst it provided a lovely surface for bowls it was probably a bit quicker than the Lancashire men would have preferred. On to the next games in this year’s Howden’s Insurance County Championship as Merseyside play Cheshire and Lancashire play Potteries.
Elsewhere….
In section 1, Potteries beat Cheshire by 17 as both home sides dominated.
Section 2 saw big wins for Cumbria (73), who won home and away against North Midlands, and Warwick and Worcs (129) who profoundly battered North Lancs and Fylde home and away.
Section 3 saw wins for South Yorkshire by 20 over Wales and Staffordshire by 5 over Greater Manchester.
Section only had 1 game as Yorkshire beat Derbyshire by 26.
