WELLWORTHY 41

WEYMOUTH & MELCOMBE REGIS 34

A HOME rink defeat saw Weymouth & Melcombe Regis lose to a strong Wellworthy side in the Presidents Cup, despite earning a creditable draw in the away rink.

Wellworthy had put Greenhill to the sword in the previous round, and were expecting to do the same to the weaker Melcombe side.

The President’s Cup is contested over one home and one away rink, and it was the away rink of Mike Bailey, Doug Plumpton Ronnie Rutter and skip Pat Rod against K Tilyard, P Stafford, Graham Reed and Dave Hanger.

It looked like the predicted score was on the cards after three ends in the rink at Wellworthy with the visitors trailing 8-2, but by 12 ends it was 12 all.

After this, the Rod four continued to dominate and so at 16 ends led 20-12 but then Wellworthy came back with a three to make it 20-15, then a one made it 21-15 and on the 19th end Rod the drew the shot only to see Dave Hanger take it out with his last wood to pick up another three.

On the 20th end, a single shot took it to 22-18 but the last end proved to be the lucky one for Hanger and a sucker punch to the Rod four, as his last bowl which was off line hit the shot bowl sending the jack back to collect a fortunate four shots and so gain a 22-22 draw.

The rink at Weymouth of John Samways, Illya Hansford, Colin Chatburn and Steve Baker were entertaining Alan Johns, Brian Mills, Colin Slade and Maurice Haylock.

This was also to prove to be a highly competitive game, as it was 6-5 at 10 ends, and 8-8 at 14 ends, but then a dropped five moved Haylock’s rink ahead.

But then back came Baker’s four to only trail 13-12 at 18 ends, but a dropped four on the 19th end followed by two singles clinched a 19-12 win for Haylock’s men and overall victory to Wellworthy.

In the South Dorset Bowling Association Baker Cup which was played at home the previous night on three rinks, Melcombe went down to a strong Wellworthy side containing four of Dorset’s Middleton Cup side 68-54.

The only winning rink was George Constant, Mike Legge, Ronnie Rutter and Rod 27-20 against K Tilyard, Nigel Apsey, P Stafford and Graham Reed.

Alan Goodey, Illya Hansford, Colin Chatburn and Steve Baker lost narrowly 20-16 to Alan Jones, Joe Kelly, Graham Parker and Dave Hanger, while John Samways, Fred Amey, Bob Bover and Mike Bailey went down 28-11 to Roy Burnett, Steve Livings, Colin Slade and Maurice Haylock.