Veterans League News
The Final of the 2021 Veterans League Bistro was a classic dish with doubt of the destiny of the trophy going down to the very last wood of the day before a 94-91 win for Marsh United 'A'. This was a Final for the neutrals as it was too close and tense for anyone with any loyalty to enjoy, that enjoyment and despair came after the final wood.
Marsh United 'A' and Cowcliffe were the two finalists and their two Section 1 fixtures had been tight affairs as each team won their home match with the one at Cowcliffe ending up a 134-134 aggregate tie. Both had beaten Champions Lockwood Con'A', Cowcliffe had actually done the 'double' over them, and they were locked together in mid-table 7th and 8th positions with identical Won-14 Lost 11 league records. It was always going to be a close match but no one could have forecast exactly how close it was to become.
The first 3-Pairs were in close competition all the way through until the last few ends when all three Marsh United pairs had a late winning burst to clock up three wins 21-15, 21-19 and 21-17. That gave them a lead of 12 on the aggregate with 2-Pairs still to play. That looked comfortable at that stage but that soon changed.
Cowcliffe were given renewed hope after an early finish for the Alan Bown / Derrick Hewitt duo saw them record a 21-10 win to bring the gap back to 1-point. At that point the final Marsh United pair were leading their Cowcliffe counterparts 14-10 to give them a total lead of 5-points. But a quick compilation of 10 points from 5 ends by John Graley and Dave Pollard saw them take Cowcliffe into a 19-14 lead. They seemed poised to create a dramatic comeback but it wasn't to be with a final end 3-up by the Dave Worrall / Brian Hamilton pairing sealed a classic win. The scorecard walks you through the full story.
Congratulations to both teams on such a high standard of bowling, a tense finale played in a good spirit which thoroughly entertained a good sized crowd around a very green Brockholes green. A very good day and even the losers should look back with some pride on their contribution to a good day's bowling. Well done to the winners and thank you to both teams.
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