DORCHESTER 37 DOLPHIN (POOLE) 20

THE GREAT ESCAPE

LANGUISHING near the foot of the league A table at Christmas, current Purbeck Trophy champions Dorchester, were in serious danger of relinquishing their title, having lost three of their opening five fixtures.

To finish the season in a top-two place in the league and gain qualification for the semi-final knockout stage would need a dramatic turnaround of fortunes.

Four morale-boosting wins on the trot eased the team into third spot, and with Moonfleet home and dry and one match remaining against Dolphin, Dorchester needed to get the better of their contending rivals to snatch the vital second spot.

This winner takes all encounter produced some telling exchanges.

Clive Matthews, Eddy Young and Dave Joslin opened up a 4-2 lead against Roger Blackie’s triple before dropping a single and a disappointing five shots to fall 8-4 behind.

In a spirited response, Joslin took shots on seven of the next eight ends to roar ahead 19-10, and run out 21-12 to the good, giving Dorchester one foot in the semi-final.

The companion triple of Brian Paulson, Phil Hallett and skip Roger Nicholas also played their part, and contained the Dolphin triple skipped by Derek Ames.

In a low-scoring game, with shots hard to come by, it was the county town players who kept their nerve to help complete the comeback of the season and gain maximum match points thanks to their 16-8 win.

The late run in achieved over the second half of the season gained Dorchester 28 of the available 30 points, and an against the odds pairing semi-final fixture against Winners of league B, Dorset Bowls Resort.