Desborough hit back

The lingering taste of the recent heavy defeat at the hands of Wey Valley was swilled away as Desborough hosted the City of Bath at home on Saturday.

This time it was the visitors who received a lashing as the Berkshire bowlers made amends for that earlier beating with a 117-shot victory.

It was wall to wall shot scoring for Desborough as they blitzed their west country opponents winning on six out of seven rinks and totting up sizeable winning scores.

Top of the pile was Peter Johnson, Nora Webb, Bridget Gravett and Roy Hughes who surged into an 18-1 lead after eight ends then 28-1 into the 12th end and stunned their opponents further with a magical ‘hotshot’ in the 19th end.

At that stage the visitors had only scored two shots but somehow chimed in to win the last two ends but this could not detract from a splendid 43-5 shot win.
On the outside rink Helen Tucker was also in the frame for the top rink title on the day as her quartet of Michael Hobson at lead Mavis Jones at No.2 and Ray Brown in the No.3 berth monopolised the opposition, falling just one short of a hotshot in the sixth end to take an 18-2 lead.

They continued their push and with a 39-11 advantage in the 18th end they were well placed for top rink but then came the Peter Johnson hotshot which altered the placings and, despite getting a four to level scores, Helen Tucker’s rink were pipped at the post by shot difference.

But there were other rinks equally entitled to headlines. Michael White, Val White, Yvonne Bower, and Peter Finlan joined the party and were 20-9 ahead going into the 19th end, grabbed seven shots in one end and a further five to close out fine 31-9 victors.

Bill Rich stepped in as reserve and assisted June Sculthorpe, Jill Finlan and skip Mike Newell to an all the way 17-shot triumph, while Vic Pointing, who still had the Wey Valley match in mind, nurtured Gill O’Neill, Helen Wilson and Maurice Gravett to a 19-2 lead at halfway.

Although they eased off the pedal in the second phase, they had plenty in the tank for a 26-14 winning score line.
John Bucknell was Desborough’s other winning rink with Shirley Johnson, Patricia Brown and Dixie Dixon although they were in a closer tussle but still joined the high end-scores league with the third seven of the match, curiously enough in the seventh end.

Len Bartlett was accompanied by Robert Taylor at No.3 and Jo Bucknell and Betty West in the front end and they could not quite make it a whitewash but they came close just losing by five shots following an  8-0 lead after three ends.

It was certainly a very pleasant relief for the Desborough club and a fine riposte and a distinct psychological boost with a semi-final and two quarter-finals just round the corner.

The final score was  208-91 to Desborough.
Rink Scores (Desborough first): J Sculthorpe, B Rich, J Finlan, M Newell 26-9; B West, J Bucknell, R Taylor, L Bartlett 20-25; P Finlan, Y Bower, V White, M White 31-9; R Hughes, B Gravett, N Webb, P Johnson 43-5; S Johnson, P Brown, D Dixon, J Bucknell 19-14; G O’Neill, H Wilson, M Gravett, V Pointing 26-14; M Hobson, M