THE RINK 8 CURSE

This morning Terry Heath, Ric Newson and Ashley Nethercliffe travelled to Atherley to compete in the Last Eights of the County Triples. Drawn in arguably the easier half of the draw, hopes were high that they would be able to progress past the first game but playing on rink 8, where Oakley seem to struggle. Oakley never got out of the blocks. Terry Heath had a steady game at lead but the opposing No 2 and 3 from Star and Crescent regularly turned over the heads and although Oakley stayed in contention being only 6-2 down at 6 ends and 10-7 down at 12 ends there was a feeling that it was not to be the club's morning. This view was reinforced on the 13th end when, holding 3 shots, Ric unfortunately moved the jack to their opponents bowl. The 15th end saw Oakley drop a 5 and losing a further 3 on the next end the match was conceded at 17 ends with Oakley losing 20-9. In the later semi-final Star and Crescent began as they did against Oakley establishing an early 7-1 lead, only to concede 25 shots in the last 12 ends.