2018 Men's Singles Competition
LA POSADA MEN’S SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP
FEB 2018
A cold and wet Monday morning greeted the players drawn to play in the first round of this years’ Club Men’s Singles Championship.
In the “Clash of the Titans” match, Jeff Rowe came from 16-19 down to defeat Nick Cummins 21-19 in an up and down game, which could have gone either way. Other first round matches saw new member, Les Springham, defeating previous finalist, Kevin Briody, 21-16, and Allen Gateshill overcoming relative novice Stuart Brickley 21-14. A great effort by Stuart against a seasoned bowler in Allen.
Although still cold, the rain had cleared by the start of the afternoon quarter final matches, which resulted in a win for Phil Walker by 21-15 over Dennis Hughes and a win for Ted Holmes by 21-14 over Nigel Snaith. First round winner Allen Gateshill overcame Dave Way 22-7, with fellow first round winners Jeff Rowe and Les Springham drawn against each other, resulting in a win for Jeff by 22-8.
Again, cold and wet weather welcomed the semi finalists on Tuesday morning, which pitted Allen Gateshill against Jeff Rowe and Phil Walker against Ted Holmes. There was nothing between the players in the match between Allen and Jeff for the first 15 ends, with the score standing at 11-10 to Jeff at that point. However, Jeff then started to pull away, winning the next 5 ends to go into a 20-10 lead and, although Allen rallied, winning 1 shot on each of the next 3 ends, Jeff got the one he needed on the 24th end to win 21-13.
The match between Phil and Ted was a very close encounter, with the score tied at 16-16 after 19 ends. Phil then went one ahead, winning the 20th end but Ted picked up 1 shot on each of the next 4 ends to take a 20-17 lead and finally got over the line 2 ends later, winning 21-18.
So, the final in the afternoon featured Ted against Jeff, which had no sooner started when a hail shower descended! Fortunately, that didn’t last long and the early stages saw Jeff take a small lead. Ted came back well though and after 17 ends the score was tied at 10-10. Two ends later, Ted had got himself into a 12-11 lead, only for Jeff to win the next 4 ends to lead 19-12 after 23. Ted picked up 1 shot on the next end but Jeff scored 1 on each of the next 2 ends to win the match 21-13 after 26 ends.
A match worthy of a final, with some top class bowling by both players. Jeff goes on to represent La Posada at the Champion of Champions tournament at Santa Maria in March.
