Our stay in the Middleton unfortunately lasted one afternoon with defeat on Saturday to Cumbria at Houghton Dairy Lane BC, Durham. This year unlike other years it is a straight knockout, as possibly our draw could have been a little kinder, as possibly Cumbria are the strongest side in the North (to note that includes Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire etc). Although we had beaten Cumbria in 2 out of the last 3 games. Anyway it is what it is (or was).
The team boasted 3 new caps, and a recall after many years. The new caps were New Delaval’s Ant Barke, Ryan Warnes-Hall, Graeme Robinson and the recall was St. Georges Karl Jameson.
L-R Cumbria Irwin S (then Northumberland players only) – Knott, Yeomans L, Parkes (in background Warnes-Hall, Pallas)
The game started relatively okay but at 5 ends we had only 1 rink up and 1 drawing, the rink that was up was Ant Barke’s being 11 nil up, with Ant playing some great bowls, and with a little more fortune that could have been more as the Cumbrian skip of Rae Graham saved a few shots during this period. The rink that was level was Darren Parkes and the rink furthest down was England international Chris Yeomans, who was paying his fellow international colleague David Forster, and David led 10 – 3. The 5 end score was 25 – 31 (in favour of Cumbria).
L-R: Cymber, Barlow (Cumbria), Harvey S (Miller behind), Minto, Aitchison, Targar in background
The game continued in a similar pattern up to 10 ends, with Cumbria extending their lead to now 12 shots, with the rinks of Jimmy Curtis (on Rink 1) and Craig Cooper next to Jimmy on rink 2 – as Curtis was 4 – 3 down at 5, but went 12 – 5 down, and Cooper was stuck on 1 (seemed to be forever), as from 1 – 5 (down), it went to 1 – 13 down at 10 ends. Barke continued his impressive debut by leading 14 – 4, Yeomans had trimmed his deficit to 9 – 13, and Parkes was now ahead 10 – 6 against Stu Irwin. Phil Harvey was also fighting back, from being 5 down at 5, this was reduced to 3 (6 – 9).
However the next stage of the game was possibly where the game was decided and lost, as through to 15 ends Cumbria forged ahead, scoring 36 shots to our 22 shots and put them in control by some 26 shots. On the 4 rinks (3 to 6) – as on these rinks alone we were 1 shot up (Harvey 13 – 14, Barke 17 – 9, Parkes 10 – 14, Yeomans 14 – 16), but it was rinks 1 and 2 where we needed to claw back. On rink 2 Cooper was finally of 1 (6 – 19), but Curtis was now 14 behind (21 – 7).
The deficit stayed around 20 – 24 shot mark, but suddenly there was more energy or lift in the team as we started to reduce the deficit. In particular Cooper was making in roads in to his deficit, Yeomans was now ahead, Parkes got off 10 (as was stuck on 10 for 5 ends), and Barke was 12 up. As end by end continued the deficit was in the teens, then suddenly it was 10 shots. Unfortunately it was not to be as Cumbria responded, and quickly scored 2 doubles to extend the lead back to 14, and then another couple of singles we were 16 down again – and only had two ends to play. These were both in progress, and with the final bowls were played out, the game was done.
Overall despite the defeat there were more positives to take from the game, also in the past we have had Muras cup where we could work on combinations, etc but this year it was not – after all I am sure we are happy to be playing in whatever the format it is / or was.
We wish Cumbria the best of luck in their next game, where they will take on Durham – likely to be played at Gosforth BC on Saturday 24th July.
Rink Scores: J Curtis 12 R Gallagher 26, C Cooper 17 J Baird 22, Yeomans 20 Forster 19, Parkes 17 Irwin 18, Barke 24 Graham 16, P Harvey 15 I Gallagher 21.
Northumberland 105 Cumbria 122
L-R: Wallace, Walker, Hodgson (all Cumbria), Knott, Jameson, Yeomans L, Parkes