Ralph Stoffers and I teamed up with Stan Zuly again yesterday to compete in the District Novices playdowns and I’m pleased to say that we won and will now move on to the Ontario Novices Championship in Woodstock. However, we did it the difficult way!
The tournament was held at Lindsay and we had competition from teams from Pickering and Oshawa.
Our first game was against the Pickering team and we got off to a terrible start. The games were 14 ends and after 6 ends we were down 1-10. However we stuck in and gradually clawed back to 10-12 at the start of the 13th. Sitting one we then had an unlucky shot which not only displaced our shot bowl but gave the opposition two! So we were four down going into the last end. After a see-saw end we were sitting three when Ralph had his final shot and he made a lovely draw to secure four points and force an extra end in which we scored two. Nerves were already shredded!
We had a break whilst we watched the Pickering/Oshawa game. That was won by Oshawa and meant that Pickering was out of the tournament. The winner of our game against Oshawa would take the title.
We played much better against Oshawa and were always in control, leading 16-6 with two ends to play. Then we nearly threw it away. We played an unbelievably ugly end and gave up seven! So the nerves were stretched again as we took a three point lead into the last end. With some good early bowls we took control and although Oshawa did manage to get shot bowl we were able to keep them at bay and take the win.
We now move on to the Ontario Novice championship next month.
The tournament was held at Lindsay and we had competition from teams from Pickering and Oshawa.
Our first game was against the Pickering team and we got off to a terrible start. The games were 14 ends and after 6 ends we were down 1-10. However we stuck in and gradually clawed back to 10-12 at the start of the 13th. Sitting one we then had an unlucky shot which not only displaced our shot bowl but gave the opposition two! So we were four down going into the last end. After a see-saw end we were sitting three when Ralph had his final shot and he made a lovely draw to secure four points and force an extra end in which we scored two. Nerves were already shredded!
We had a break whilst we watched the Pickering/Oshawa game. That was won by Oshawa and meant that Pickering was out of the tournament. The winner of our game against Oshawa would take the title.
We played much better against Oshawa and were always in control, leading 16-6 with two ends to play. Then we nearly threw it away. We played an unbelievably ugly end and gave up seven! So the nerves were stretched again as we took a three point lead into the last end. With some good early bowls we took control and although Oshawa did manage to get shot bowl we were able to keep them at bay and take the win.
We now move on to the Ontario Novice championship next month.