In a very satisfying start to our season, Saxon Bowlers got a nice ‘ away ‘ win against Barton Seagrave on Wednesday afternoon. Both teams had a close start in their games, mostly low scoring ends, and mainly in favour of Barton Seagrave. However Saxons ‘A’ and Saxons ‘B’ both amazingly managed to get 4 shots on one of their ends, so that at the half-way point in the match the scores on both mats were tied at 6 shots each. From that point, Saxons ‘A’ pulled steadily away from their opposition, winning five of the next seven ends, with only a couple of high scores from Barton Seagrave keeping them in contention.

In the fifteenth end, then, it was all to play for with just one shot separating them. There was an unusual and unprecedented end to the game, when with his penultimate bowl the Saxons ‘skip’ hit the wood – travelling at a fair pace ! – and his bowl was not intercepted in time before it hit the woods around the head, disturbing them slightly. Both number threes repositioned the woods in the head, to their agreed satisfaction, and the last couple of bowls were played.

Amazingly, after the last bowls from each skip had been played, including another heavy shot from Saxons, it was seen that three bowls were all touching the jack, two from Barton Seagrave and one from Saxons. After consulting with other skips it was decided that, as no bowl could be said to be ‘closer’ than the others, it was a tied end with no score to either team, and so Saxons won, but only just.

On the other mat Saxons ‘B’ had a great second half to their game, and began scoring freely, winning seven of the last eight ends, including four ends won by four shots and another by three. Barton Seagrave were unable to keep up with them, and only an unexpected late score of four in the penultimate end brought them up into double figures. But in the end it was an impressive high scoring win for Saxons.

Saxon ‘A’ won by 14 - 13
Saxon ‘B’ won by 27 - 10

Saxons won overall then, 41 to 23

Team A : Linda Gill, Ann Cook, Tony Sellick, Chris Selling
Team B : Anna Davies, Jeanette Statham, Roger Bond, Roger Gill