News
The Hertfordshire County divisional finals were held at Harpenden and involved four teams, representing Batchwood, the two Welwyn clubs and Townsend, who had won their way through as league runners up. The morning session saw Welwyn and District taking on Batchwood, with Welwyn matched against Townsend.
The aggregate score between the two rinks decided who won, who lost, and Townsend beat Welwyn by 33 shots to 30 to book their place in the afternoon final. Meanwhile Batchwood won against Welwyn and District, albeit by a single shot margin...
The final saw the Townsend rink of Les Perkins, Andy Scarborough, Peter Armstrong and Matt Pope take an early lead against Batchwood in a low scoring first few ends, but continued to accumulate points and frustrate their opponents, who found scoring impossible - eventually losing by 21-3. The other four, of Robbie Ransted, Bob Lawrie, Peter Thomson and Alan Charran also succeeded in stopping any momentum from their opponents, while accumulating points themselves, with the ultimate outcome of a 20-9 victory. All in all, Townsend won by an aggregate score of 41-12 - a most impressive margin by any standards and were awarded the Divisional Trophy, for the first time in the last ten years!
More than 50 teams, representing all clubs in the area, competed in the St Albans and District pairs competition, the most fiercely contested of them all. The two finalists were decided today, with Townsend's Peter Thomson and Alan Charran, booking their places for the third year in succession.
The semi final was fair from plain sailing, however, and with neither team able to score multiple shots, a low scoring, close struggle was guaranteed. As it was, the score after the required 18 ends was 11 shots each, thus necessitating the playing of an additional end. Predictably, that was only decided when Alan Charran drew closest with his final bowl to a wood that had been ditched by his opponent, and thus the Townsend pair reserved their places in what was to be no less than their third final.
