Saturday afternoon brought our first Middleton Cup game of the season; and as previously reported the Middleton this season is back to a group stage. First up was Lancashire at Gosforth BC, with the other game being played saw Derbyshire host Lincolnshire at Long Eaton BC (Derbyshire).
With 5 debutants in the side and over 8 changes from the 2022 season, we started off relatively well, and led 28 – 23 at 5 ends, mainly through Myerscough’s rink leading 9 – 2 at this point, and all the other rinks were very tight. This pattern continued through to 10 ends, and again saw us lead 58 – 52, with Chris Palmer’s rink leading the way, score line 13 – 7 over Lancashire’s stalwart Alec Atkinson. However this was cancelled out as Ant Barke’s rink was trailing 12 – 6. The other 4 rinks were still very much in the balance. The next 2 ends actually saw Lancashire take the lead by 9 shots, as Barke’s rink trailed 17 – 9 @14 ends, and Yeomans’s rink dropped a count of 7 on end 13, to trail 17 – 10.
From this point we scored on most rinks across the green, Yeomans hit back, and scored a double, then 5, to tie the game up at 17 all at 15 ends, Barke scored a 4, and at 15 ends we led by 16 shots (93 – 77) and through this period we extended the lead up to 30 shots and at one stage we did not have a rink down, as 5 rinks were up and 1 was level. At 18 ends we led 112 – 90. The final ends were played out and every shot fought over, first off was Chris Yeomans, who dropped a count of 3 to lose his game 24 – 23; Simon Richardson beat Jason Parkinson 21 – 14, scoring 10 shots in the last 6 ends. Debutant George Richardson held off a late fightback from Lancashire’s Team Manager Ian Mayne, scoring on last 2 ends to win 21 – 17. Gary Myerscough’s rink lost a count of 5 on the 18th end, and this seemed to change momentum on the rink, as Gary had led 15 – 10 at 15 ends but unfortunately went down 20 – 17. Ant Barke’s rink were level at 18 all playing the last end, and despite this comeback they could not secure the shot and lost a treble to go down 21 – 18. Chris Palmer’s rink maintained their good lead throughout the contest, and won 28 – 13.
Rink Scores: (Northumberland skips first): C Yeomans 23 A Booth-Young 24; S Richardson 21 J Parkinson 14; G Richardson 21 I Mayne 19; G Myerscough 17 C Gale 20; A Barke 18 R Sterling 21; C Palmer 28 A Atkinson 13.
Overall Score: Northumberland 128 Lancashire 109
Match Points: Northumberland 16 Lancashire 6
In the other group game Lincolnshire had a tremendous finish, recovering 89 – 85 down at 15 ends, and level at 17 ends to win the game by 20 shots, and also winning on 5 rinks – collecting a total of 20 points at Long Eaton BC (Derbyshire).
Next up for Northumberland is a home game against Lincolnshire on Saturday 17th June, starting at 1pm @ Gosforth BC.
To view results, table and fixtures – CLICK HERE.