9:01am Wednesday 8th July 2009
By Echo Reporter
DORSET 105 SOMERSET 129
DESPITE the appointment of a new team manager, and an excellent pre-season programme, Dorset finished the Middleton Cup season in the all too familiar spot at the foot of the table, without a win to their name.
In another game where pre-match optimism was replaced by the reality of not being able to outscore their opponents, Dorset slid to a 24-shot defeat at the hands of Somerset, hard on the heels of a 45-shot mauling by Cornwall.
Dorset did avoid defeat on three of the six rinks with two wins and a draw, but the combined total of the three losing rinks was 34 shots which was too many for the 10 shot advantage of the three non-losing rinks.
The best result of the day came from the former Barry Patterson rink with new skip Neil Burroughs – playing against Ryan Collier – recording a top rink 22-13 result in his first Middleton Cup game of the season. John Crabb, Ken Hann, and Dave Smith supported him.
Patterson switched to take charge of Chris Thorne, Ron McCarthy and Chris Weeks and despite dropping a five on the final end, held on to record a 20-19 win, against Somerset’s John Hick.
Dorset’s only other result of note was the 21-21 draw obtained by Ben Paulley, Steven Huttley, Stacey Dickinson and Wayne Garnett against Terry Perkins.
Although the shared points on the rink were obtained thanks to a last end two, Garnett was 16-3 up and still in control at 16 ends when the score was 19-10 in his favour.
Again it was a fall away over the final few ends that took the shine off the performance.
Harry Hovenden, Pat Ravelin, Doug Rumble and Steve Gait had the doubtful distinction of being the best of the losers in their 27-19 reverse against Neil Williams. Gait was in contention at 14-10 down but when 10 shots were lost over the next three ends, including a six count, victory was unlikely.
Eddy Young skipped another rink that was reorganised after the Cornwall crushing and here it was a case of a bad start. The Dorset four were 11 shots down after three ends to Neil Kunc and then scored equally over the rest of the game, but it was too late.
Somerset inflicted the heaviest defeat on the Dorset quartet of George Spracklen, Ryan Stone, Nick Voss and Adam Tidby who were unable to make any impression on Andrew Rendell and his team-mates. Tidby, returning to Dorset this season after a spell with Hampshire, finished on the wrong side of a 28-12 scoreline.
A poor start, a mid-game fade, or a disappointing finish had been the order of the day for the county, resulting in a meagre tally of five points from the 22 available. The irony was that a win on three rinks against Somerset could have projected Dorset into the runner-up spot. The mood in the camp would then have been far more buoyant.
The harsh reality at the moment is that Dorset bowlers are not good enough – and few people take pleasure in that state of affairs.
Manager Mike Stapleton now has a year to reflect, regroup, and try to find a policy for a dramatic improvement in performances before Dorset are seen as the whipping boys of the group.
He said: “I had a good knowledge of the players before I took this job on, and I have to admit that I have been disappointed with some of the performances, but still feel that perseverance can produce a turnaround of fortunes.”
Stapleton has known success with the county, as he was a playing member of the side that reached the Middleton Cup final and played against Yorkshire, under the leadership of the late Ron Freeman.
That however, was back in 1990 and now nearly two decades down the line the formula for renewed success has not been discovered by a growing number of purposeful team managers.
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