Gloucestershire Women (13pts) 101-83 (4pts) Cambridgeshire Women

GLOUCESTESHIRE women chalked up their second win in the Middle England League with a 101-83 win over Cambridgeshire at Aylesbury Bowls Club.

The match started with Cambridgeshire having to pull out of playing one rink when one of their ladies was injured and they had no reserves to fall back on. That meant the match was a five rink affair and by the halfway stage Gloucestershire were 48-37 down before upping a gear to move into a six shot lead and in the final run in win by 18 shots.

The rinks that did the damage were that of Gill Fry (Gloucester Spa), Rita Gerry (Moreton), Di Wilson (Olveston) and Margaret McColl (Cheltenham Spa) who against Sue Richie found themselves 8-1 down before powering away to pick up 20 shots in just 10 ends against three to go 21-11 ahead. They went onto win 25-15.

Val Ayres (Lydney), Jenny Stanfield (Moreton), Sue Osbourne (Kingswood & Hanham) and Joy Sheward (Cheltenham Whaddon) against Sylvia Pinder took an early 9-1 lead and never looked back. By the halfway stage they were 11-4 up and by the finished they had gained a 21-13 win.

The comeback of the match came from Jenny Westlake (Arrow), Joyce Keating (Tetbury) and Lindsay Collin (Page Ladies) who up against Sue Alexander looked to be heading for a massive defeat when after 10 ends they trailed 15-4. Hitting a purple patch over the next five ends they pulled back to level at 16 all and then forged ahead with another five shots in three ends to lead 21-16. In the final run in there was no stopping the rink as they grabbed another six shots to win by eight shots 27-19.

The rink of Val Molton (Kingswood & Hanham), Jill Stevenson (Henleaze), Julia Stannard (Nailsworth) and Jackie Ind (Arrow) having lead 10-7 at halfway against Val Hughes surrendered the lead five ends later and were pipped at the post by two shots 18-16.

Sally Rolls (Gloucester Spa) Cynthia Winter-Alsop (Wotton), Marguerite Cobb (Tetbury) and Rachel Hughes (Royal Forest of Dean) up against Chery Salisbury faced an uphill task when going 11-4 down and in the end they were beaten 18-12.