Wardrop Cup Final 2024 at Avenue Coventry BC
Avenue Coventry BC welcomed Welford on Avon and Sherwood Park for the last County Final of the season, the Wardrop Cup. A thrilling morning of bowls saw the result come down to the last end of the final discipline, Welford winning 3-2.
The two wood singles are always the first match to complete, Sherwood Park’s Hugh Dunachie made a good start, leading 3-1 after three ends but his opponent Roger Hill (Welford) went on an eight end scoring spree, picking up four doubles and four singles to lead 13-3 with eleven ends gone. A brace of singles for Dunachie were cancelled out by Hill the next end but Dunachie took the next four ends with singles to trail by six. Unfortunately, with only three ends left to play the Dunachie needed three singles to force an extra end, he achieved a brace of doubles to take the game to the last end but could only gain a single on the last. Welford winning the two woods 15-15 and taking a 1-0 advantage. In the four wood singles Sherwood Park also made a good start, Gary Langford quickly moving to 13-4 against Welford’s Mick Hawkins, Langford increased his lead to 17-7, Hawkins took a single and double before Langford took a double and two singles to complete the 21-10 and level the overall score 1-1.
The destination of the Wardrop Cup would now come down to three remaining disciplines, the Pairs saw R Corp & M Follis start well for Sherwood Park, leading by five after seven ends against M Timms & A Walters (Welford). Sherwood also led in the Triples, E Hunter, P Finch & M Evans two shots up after four ends against Welford’s A Prickett, A Francis & P Green while in the Fours it was Welford on top, D Green, P Lambert, J Shelton & W Brundle up by three after five ends against N Buckley, T Rowe, G Morrison & J Finch of Sherwood Park. In the pairs Sherwood saw their lead cut down to three with five ends to go, with eleven ends gone in the triples Sherwood also led by three, while in the fours Welford were in control, eight shots clear with six ends to play. The Fours was the next game to finish, D Green, P Lambert, J Shelton & W Brundle completed their 17-7 victory for Welford with an end to spare, moving back ahead 2-1 over all. This was closely followed by the Pairs as R Corp & M Follis held on to win 13-10 for Sherwood Park and levelling the overall score.
That left just the Triples to finish, E Hunter, P Finch & M Evans had just taken a brace of singles for Sherwood Park to lead by three with three ends to go. Welford took the next end with a double to cut the deficit down to one and then took the penultimate end with a treble to lead by two shots. Despite their best efforts the Sherwood trio couldn’t deny Welford’s A Prickett, A Francis and P Green the 15-12 win and crucially the point needed to win the Wardrop Cup 3-2.