The Chuckles, the Taylor Twins, the nicest brothers in bowls, the epically talented and stunningly handsome Craig and his older brother. Whatever you call us Friday saw us travel to the all England. Well mostly we sat stationary on the M1 but eventually we arrived at the strange town of Brighouse.
A quick stop in the historic an beautiful local was punctuated by a news report on the all England that ran for 5 minutes and didn’t mention me once. The rest of the group decided on the tip of a local that we should head to Huddersfield. The logic seemed sound but well what can we say? Do not ever go to Huddersfield is what I can say. Apparently they have a great curry house but that was cordoned off by the police when we walked past. All the other restaurants (well fast food places) that looked less dangerous than the knife toting group goading police officers outside aforementioned eatery closed at ten. A quick taxi back found an adequate curry house before attempting to get some sleep in a stunningly hot hotel room.
Saturday
Breakfast was a solid affair nothing especially great but it would garner 3 Wiggys out of five. Despite the All England being played only a few miles away in Cleckheaton the taxi drivers seemed clueless about its existence and we had to blindly guide the taxi to its destination. The all England started a few hours before the Olton Club championship and already we had local players out and people being insulted - Jacko probably wasn’t even out of bed yet. The weather was glorious and local bowler and friend to us all Ant Bracken was making his way steadily towards the final. In the meantime Jack was keeping us up dated with the scores at the Olton and was assuring me my £2 on him was safe.
Chris green hill beat Dave Evans
Andy carter beat Bucko
The messiah beat Chris James in what was probably game of the day
Wiggly beat Karen
In the battle of initials JP beat CJ no word whether or not JP had fed everyone.
Larry beat Alan its time to get 2.6’s sav
Rocky beat Lord Lowe
And Jacko beat Julie .
At around this point I had a lovely hot dog and chips entered a miserable selfie in Mandy Padgett’s selfie competition (see above piccy) and had long since swapped pop for alcohol.
Wigg beat Andy
Jack beat JP
Chris beat Larry
Steve beat rocky.
We had two w&w bowlers in the qtrs but to be honest the heat had got to my head and I was looking like a match ready to burst into flame if you touched me. A taxi was promptly called and given directions.
Steve Myatt beat the Wigg
And Jack beat Killer
With ex team mate and Solihull boy Bracken in the all England final and my bet at home on Jack this looked like it could be a dream scenario unfortunately it was not to be. Brack lost the big prize 21-20 and Jack cost me £7 when Steve gave him a kicking in the final.
See how many Warwick and Worcester bowlers you can spot trying to get in on Bracks success!
Well done Brack a great effort, hopefully wiggy will go one better next year. Congratulations to Steve for deservedly winning and proving once again what a quality player he is. Jack you should have used my woods and it is the last time you let me down I will never put money on you again.
Photos from the All England are from the Facebook profile of Steve Davies, all rights reserved.
The Heart of England Doubles
With two couples through to the heart of England doubles hopes were high of a good showing for the Olton Tavern. Jack and Dave had done superbly well to reach their first ever finals days but unfortunately the finals proved a big learning curve as they went out to the eventual winners 21-2
The chuckles meanwhile got home 21-19 in a game they were well up in and had dominated. In the Semi final they were up against a two time champion and got of to a very slow start. A few ends later and the game was once again in the balance. At 10-7 down disaster struck as Craggers calf gave out and left him in a crumpled heap in agony on the floor and we soon found our selves at 17-7 down. Scott took over the lead duties and a run brought us back into striking distance at 17-13 down before one bad end cost the game losing to 13.
All in all it was a good evening. The green isn’t the most natural fit for a doubles competition but ll the teams did there best and the standard of games was very high.
No comments:
Post a Comment