Hi! Fellow bowlers,
Did you watch the World Championships recently? Yes? So did we, great wasn’t it?
Well, we were a bit luckier for the Men’s Quarters, Semis and Final on the Friday-Sunday.
Bernie and I went to Potters to see them live!
If you thought they were exciting on the ‘box’, I can assure you they were enhanced by 110% by being there.
In the rink the atmosphere was electric and as we were lucky enough to get the front row or the next one back at all the matches, we were no more than 10-20 feet away from the players or the head. We sat in the place where we could see all the heads at close quarters from 1st to last ( 1-9or 11 ) but it didn’t interfere with our enjoyment of the other ends, as they were shown on a giant screen above the audience opposite, so we could watch the goings on at the head OK!
On Saturday morning we had the Junior final which was great! One team had a young girl of about 12 as lead and she was jack perfect every time, no matter what the length. Likewise the other team had a skip of around 16 who gave us all a master class of how it should be done.
In the evening we were all invited to a Q & A session for about an hour, then a bit of fun with all of the Markers, Refs and Commentators taking part, much to the hilarity of the audience. To round off the evening we were asked to put up our hands if anyone wanted to ‘have a go’ on the hallowed green!! I didn’t get picked unfortunately as only about 16 were chosen. They had to send one bowl down the rink towards a set of elevated targets at about 23m, with holes marked 10,20,50,100 and the one with the highest score would get a prize! Well! All but 4, having tried to emulate the Pro’s ended up flying over the targets into the ditch beyond. 2 didn’t reach and the other two after a play off scored 90 & 70 respectively.
The winner got a super-duper professional large wheeled bowls bag and the runner up got a smaller one.
Sunday brought the Final and I have to admit I for one was rooting for Stewart Anderson, who had been bowling his socks off all through the championships.
As I am sure you all watched the match, I won’t bore you with the details, but the atmosphere in there was really electric and when Stewart won on the last end by one there was uproar.
Still, all in all it was a great 3 days ( next year we are hoping to go for the 2nd week ) and we can thoroughly recommend you go and see for yourselves.
Whilst we were there we met up with a couple from Thameside Wanderers, whom we play frequently and also a chap who played for Tye Green at our comp last May at Potters.
I would add that, although it is a great experience, it is not for the feint hearted as there are morning, afternoon and evening sessions, so a lot of rushing around at meal times, to get fed and back into the rink in time to get a good seat!!
Well, that’s all from me!!….See you there next year!!!
John Mercer
Page Last Updated on 15th Mar 2021