Chester 12 Fylde 4

The Three Boys In Action (Photo by Catherine).

Fylde: Phil Snowden 1.5, Philip Bass 6, Catherine Bass 8, Robert Bentwood 10.
Chester: Derek Bell-Jones 3, Nigel Worthington 3, Sally Slater 4, Micheal Fletcher 10.

The team arrived at Chester in plenty of time. Thanks to Phil Snowden for chauffeur duties. No rain but overcast most of the day with occasional breeze. The Chester lawns played well with a bit sponginess querying whether the partner ball always moved on thin take-offs.

The final score shadows the underlying closeness of some of the games. The Fylde team put up a spirited fight against an in form Chester - strangely lying bottom of the League - and all the other distractions of playing in a public park on a Sunday populated by very vocal dog walkers, mobile ‘phone users, joggers, spectators and groups of young lads cheering hoop runs and cat calling.

In Round 1, Chester won all four close Games - 14-11, 14-11, 14-10, 14-8. Round 2 saw two wins for Fylde, one on time 7-13, the other 10-14. The other two went Chester’s way…one 11-9 on time.

After lunch, Chester won all four. Sally, who had gone through a recent bad patch of losses, took her third win in less than 30 minutes 14-1. She won all her matches on the day.

In the final round, Sally pegged out Catherine’s Black. The fight was still on but after an error in judgement, CB narrowly missed out 14-11. Phil beat Derek 9-14 to end Derek’s winning run on the day and Robert bounced back from his loss to Sally but oppo Micheal was too strong ending it 14-8. Philip, last to finish and with other lawns cleared, took Nigel to Golden Hoop - with a distant audience willing him on - just winning 8-9 for Fylde.

Posted by Catherine, 22nd July

Southport 5 Fylde 11

A bright and breezy day with a little rain at Southport for the Fylde team comprising Betty (3) Barry (6) Alison (7) and Robert (10)

In Round 1 we won 3 out of the 4 games, Betty played Gail (3.5) and when approaching hoop 2 she was still some distance away from it when she realised that the reception ball was at the boundary. She took a cavalier shot and it sailed straight through the hoop! In Round 2 against Tina (9) Betty snookered herself but was able to hit straight back through the hoop and continue to peg out.

During Round 3 Robert had used his bisques very conservatively against Gail and ended up losing 14-1 so with a determined attitude in Round 4 he used them more freely to stay on the lawn and won 14-12 against Tina. Barry had a textbook game against Tina in Round 1 and then a hard game against Gail in Round 2. In his final game against Bill (2) he had the chance to win 14-0 but having peeled through Rover he missed the leg enabling Bill to complete a turn, eventually winning 14-6

Alison’s first game was against Don (0) and went quite smoothly but she also missed the chance to peg out before Don scored. Gail was definitely the hardest match, she is a very accurate shot and rarely missed hit in.

This weeks Mars Bar goes to Alison, winning all 4 games and triggering her handicap to 6 in time for the Festival weekend.

Posted by Alison, 27th June

Fylde 11 LLanfaifechan 5

A win at last !

Llanfairfechan had asked us to provide sunshine as we had on their last visit to our lawns - we couldn’t oblige all day sunshine as we all donned wet weather gear during Round 2 but fortunately it was short lived.

Round 1 saw us even with Alison and Barry both winning against Jane (6) and Fred (4) whilst Philip and Alan were still warming up against David (10) and Elaine (10). Philip had a very close game against David, ending 6-7 to Llanfairfechan.

Alison lost the toss and then Jane decided to try to run the hoop with her 1st ball, missing and then allowing Alison to construct a 3 ball break and go to hoop 6 eventually winning 14-4. In Round 2 we won 3 of the 4 games where Barry played a lovely overtaking roll from hoop2 to 3 enabling him to run hoop3 with the other ball perfectly positioned behind - his opponent even clapped!

Then onto Round 3 after lunch where we won all 4 games. Philip had another close battle with Fred eventually winning 13-12. The final round saw some blue sky finally appear again and another draw - so overall a very good day for Fylde and a Mars Bar for Barry winning all 4 games. ( except I forgot to buy one )

Posted by Alison, 16th June

Pendle 11 Fylde 5

The sun was shining from start to finish and it was a lovely day on the lawns - at least for the home team!
We draw in the first round with Liz beating Robin (7) 7-14 and Ian beat Paul ( 1/2) 9-14.
In the 2nd round Ian was our only winner and in the 3rd round Pendle had a full house.
Round 3 saw Peter vs Paul and having pegged Paul out he was doing a good job of hiding and creeping round until he blobbed hoop 4 which unfortunately was also Paul's hoop. He hit in and finished.
In the final round Alison was lulled into a false sense of security by Andrew (10) who won the toss and then used 4 bisques trying to set his initial break up and then gave up. Alison took her first ball to peg and then Andrew came on and proceeded to peel his balls through the first 2 hoops. Good play by the Pendle team and a good atmosphere.
Andrew cut from 10 to 8 by the Fed Handicapper - which he was delighted about Well done to Ian winning 3 games.

Posted by Alison, 21st May

Fylde 6 Westmorland 10

Fylde greeted Westmorland on the sunniest day of the year so far and it was lovely to be back playing on the lawns. The Westmorland team were surprised and pleased to see 2 relative newcomers to our team, Derek (10) and Robert (10) , who both acquitted themselves admirably.

Robert scored 6 hoops in his first ever competitive match and followed that up with 14-11 win in the 3rd round. He enjoyed the experience of playing a match with Roger Brooks who needed 3 peels. Derek lost his first match against Roger but then went on to win the next three games despite ( or maybe because of!) a late start and a disrupted game due to his opponent in the 2nd game.

So nearly a Mars Bar for Derek but not quite! Barry (6) had a long protracted game against Mike in Round 1 eventually losing 10-11 after 1 hour 50 minutes. He started off in textbook style going to peg with his first ball using only 2 bisques.

Alison (6) lost her first game against Susan, let down by poor hitting in and not being able to construct a decent break. She redeemed herself in the 2nd game by getting both balls to rover before her opponent Mike had scored a hoop.

Posted by Alison, 2nd May