A great day out at Redcar for the regional finals of the Walker Cup! Very hot and sticky weather but we were very lucky to dodge any of the rain or thunderstorms that were forecast.
We had a peculiar start to the day after arriving on time to find our mini bus boot was jammed and so we had no access to our bowls or uniform!!! We had a very long wait whilst this issue was addressed, and the real hero of the day was the emergency locksmith who we had to call out to drill out the lock!!!
However we arrived on the green ready to take on Nottinghamshire without anyone looking flustered!!
A great team effort saw us win this semi final 45-35
Rink 5 -V.Symons, J.Weir, D.Taylor, S.Storey took a fabulous lead and were 15-2 after 8 ends. Spurred on by our great band of supporters and an abundance of great shots, they extended their lead to finish the game 31-11.
Rink 6 – R.Cartwright, M. Ross, C.Gardener, B. Ware got off to a much slower start and we were 4-14 down after 10 ends and Nottinghamshire extended this to 5-21 after 14 ends. However spurred on by our team and our supporters we finished in a stronger position of 14-24 to ensure an overall win for Northumberland and a passage into the final.
2023 Walker Cup Regional Finals v Notts
After a very short lunch break we then had to face a very strong team from Lincolnshire, which consisted of Amy Pharoah Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist and England International.
Penny Strong, Ruby Hill & Chelsea Spencer all England Indoor Internationals. However we tried not to let this faze us
Rink 3 – RC, MR, CG, BW couldn’t believe their luck when they took a 7-0 lead after the first 2 ends! However this was very short lived as Lincolnshire took a 5 on end 3. Our lead continued to 8-5 after 4 ends and then it went downhill! Our opponents continued to put in superb shots with confidence and managed to take out anything that we had in on the jack! Our only saving grace was on the last end we took out their 2 bowls to take a 2 and get off the dreaded 8 to concede the game after 16 ends at 10-25.
Rink 4 – VS, JW, DT, SS Unfortunately it was Lincolnshire this time that took the early lead of 4-1 after 4 ends and they extended it further to 10-3 after the 8th end. They kept on the pressure consistently with some superb shots taking it to 16-3 after 12 ends. Unfortunately our skip had to be replaced due to ill health, and Susan MacDonald came on as reserve. Northumberland scored a 4 and a 1 on ends 15 and 16 respectively, but we made the decision to concede the game at 8-18.
Overall loss of 18-43 in this final but we can hold our heads up high as everyone gave their best today. We were outplayed by a very experienced and challenging team from Lincolnshire who I believe have won this National competition before.
There is always next year .
2023 Walker Cup Regional Finals v Lincs
Thank you to our merry band of supporters who came down in the coach and to those supporters who came to spectate in their own cars! It was great to have you all there and Northumberland certainly made their presence felt in this competition.
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2023 Walker Cup Team