News Match Report
Sun 26 Jun 2011 - SWF Federation League (played at Budleigh Salterton CC)
Budleigh Salterton v Cornwall
Sunday June 26th saw Cornwall’s Federation team visit Budleigh Salterton for the last of this season’s league matches. Due to the unavailabity of any of the lower hadicapo players, Cornwall had to field a selection of its Intermediate team players for this match. This meant that with one exception, Budleigh’s players ranked higher than Cornwall’s.
Quite thick sea mist enveloped Budleigh, leaving the lawns very wet, and consequently playing rather slowly. In the morning, Tony Jennings (Capt, handicap 14), and Colin Hadley (14), played Budleigh’s Elaine Norsworthy (7) & Tim Lisle (7). This meant that Cornwall enjoyed the benefit of 7 bisques. These were well used, and Cornwall gained a win 20-12. In the first pair of singles, David Edwards (10) had a surprisingly comfortable win against Michael Peters (9), 26-8. However, Des Honey (14), not hitting his usual form until too late in the game, went down 14-19 against Malcolm Beaver (14). At lunch, Cornwall 2, Budleigh 1.
By this time, the mist had cleared, and the lawns had dried out, becoming pretty fast, and requiring careful shots to avoid over-hitting. At time, balls turned noticeably as they slowed down, but the gains & losses due to this probably balanced for each side. In the afternoon singles, Honey played Lisle, and playing consistently & well, won 21-16. Jennings played Peters, and roared off into a good lead without the need to use any of his 5 bisques. However, Peters suddenly found his form, and played very effective catch-up, finally winning 22-17. Hadley had 7 bisques against Norsworthy, and again, got a good initial lead, but once the bisques had gone, his opponent, playing excellently, repeated the catch-up, and won narrowly, 23-21.
Edwards played Beaver, giving him 4 bisques, and established a very good lead. Beaver used his last bisque, and managed a good break with his forward ball. A period of good play from Beaver, and some waywardness from Edwards, saw a situation where Beaver was able to peg out one of Edwards’s balls, leaving him needing rover & peg. Beaver was on peg and 3-back, with a good set up for this hoop. Edwards placed his remaining ball in corner 3, hoping that something might go wrong for Beaver at 4-back. Fortunately for Cornwall, it did, and in the critical shot of the game, and as it turned out, the match, Edwards hit in, ran rover & pegged out. A real nail-biter.
The Federation team finished the season with 2 wins from 4 games.
Final Score: Budleigh 3 Cornwall 4