BOWLS: Wellington ladies make home advantage count (From Somerset County Gazette)

BOWLS: Wellington ladies make home advantage count

9:12am Wednesday 1st August 2012 in Sport

Wellington ladies played home and away to Yeovil ladies in the South and South West Ladies League.

At Yeovil Joan Greenway, Ann Cowling, Pam Darch and Thelma Helps had a major battle on their hands. Both the Wellington and Yeovil teams struggled to get more than one shot every end they played so the final score was a very low 12 shots to 10 in Yeovil's favour.

Back on Wellington's home green however it was a different story.

Esther Twose, Julia Stanton, Winn Courtney and Skip Fran Hughes took up the cudgels with their Yeovil opponents beating them by 27-8 and giving Wellington a 37-20 victory.

Wellington Men's League Triples match against Burnham-on-Sea was a little one sided.

Ian Heard, Courtney Bowden and Bill Heard won on their rink comfortably 20-10. Brian Etherington, Martin Speakman and Ken Brown also had a good game taking it 19-10.

Laurie Greaves, Paul Kelly and Mike Groves had a much closer game being 16 all with one to play. On the final end, the jack was knocked back almost into the ditch but as it turned out that favoured Wellington’s bowlers and they won the end and the game 19-16. The final match score was Wellington 58, Burnham 36 so Wellington went home happy with all 12 points.

There were three games played in the Wellington’s Men’s A match at Bridgwater A on Saturday.

The visitors struggled to get to know the away green and Bridgwater’s strong A teams made the most of their insecure play.

Ian Heard, Laurie Greaves, Roland Bath and Bill Heard started well for Wellington and were 12-4 up after ten ends. However, Andrew Marsh’s Bridgwater side soon began to catch up. They took a five on the 18th end which sealed it 22-19 in their favour.

That was close, but the next rink was even closer. Brian Etherington, Tony Jennings, Paul Kelly and Mike Groves’ Wellington side were playing catch-up from the start but their efforts very nearly gave them a draw if not a win.

The Wellington team were six down and one to play. A terrific effort gave them five shots, but it was not quite enough and Bridgwater came through 22-21.

On the last rink Mark Phillips’ Wellington side did everything they could but Vernon Hughes’ Bridgwater team were the masters on the day, winning 27-15 and taking the overall scores to 71-55 in Bridgwater’s favour.