Finals Day Part 1

Three of the Club finals were held on Sunday 1st September in glorious sunshine at Milton Park.  Mixed Pairs Final The mixed pairs final was the first final of the day and proved to be one of the best. Tony Cook and Peter Ellard were up against Min Wright and Ben Donnelly, and it was very difficult to predict how this final would go. Min and Ben started well and by the 8th end were 11-5 shots in the lead and looking like future champions. Tony and Peter were not going to let this final slip away and managed to pull the game back to 12-12 on the 13th end. By the 16th end Min and Ben had a slight advantage leading 16-14  and with two ends left to play were favourites to win, but Tony and Peter fought back again to tie the game 16 all on the 17th end – all to play for on the last end. The last end bought a nail-biting conclusion to the final with Min and Ben holding one shot and only two shots left to play. Tony with his last wood needed to take the jack through the head and follow it to pick up the possible winning shot, this he did with a great wood bring back the advantage back to his side. The last wood of the final was left to Ben, and he had to try and move Tony’s last wood away from the jack. Unfortunately, he was not able to move either the wood or jack, and the champions of the mixed pairs for the 2023-24 season went to Tony Cook and Peter Ellard. Peter Ellard dedicated this win to his best friend and clubmate Randall Davies who played in the finals in 2023 and had unexpectedly passed away earlier this year.  Men’s Singles This event was held in the afternoon as Steve Smith the defending champion had been playing in the Portsmouth & District Bowls Finals in the morning. (A report about this will follow later). In this club final Steve Smith was the favourite to retain his title but found a very determined Richard Smalley no walk over in fact Richard had accrued a big shots lead by the 11th end which Steve never recovered from. Steve found the difference in pace from the fast green at Rowner in the morning to the much heavier Milton green  difficult to adjust too and also Richard was bowling exceptionally well. Richard finished the game as a worthy club champion winning 218. Richard will now represent Priory in the Portsmouth Champion of Champions competition being held at Leigh Park next Saturday. Good Luck Richard. Ladies Singles This event was also held in the afternoon as Min Wright who was playing Elaine Lister in the final had played in a very long exciting mixed pairs final during the morning. Min was hoping the disappointment of losing the Mixed Pairs Final in the morning would spur her on to an afternoon victory.

 

Elaine begin the final with a good start and by the 4th end was leading 5-1, Min then picked up 3 shots in the 5th to bring the score back to 4-5. By the 7th end Elaine had increased her lead to 7-4 but then had a bad spell during the next four ends losing them and Min sailed into the lead 8-7. It was then Mins turn to lose five ends and Elaine took the lead to 17-8 on the 16th. On the 20th end Min picked up another 3 and reduced the arrears to 14-18 but Elaine applied the pressure again to eventually win 21-15 after 23 ends. Congratulations to both finalists for producing such a good final of a very high standard and to Elaine our first ladies champion since Priory became a mixed club. It was nice to see so many club members watching at these events which all the f inalist very much appreciated.