Middleton Cup

Gloucestershire (16pts) 120 Worcestershire 111 (6pts)

GLOUCESTERSHIRE came out on top of the local derby with Worcestershire in the Middleton Cup Group Match at Broadway Bowling Club, winning 120-111.

In a close match Gloucestershire took just a shot lead across the six rinks after five ends before going behind 52-48 and the halfway stage. Still behind by three shots going into the last three ends they forged ahead with a 25-shot score across the board to just 13 against to pick up the win.

Both counties won three rinks with the best for Gloucestershire coming from Jack Williams, James Speller, Rob Griffiths, Rob Gwilliam  who up against Rob Stanley were 12-8 ahead at halfway before opening up a 13-shot lead after they grabbed a seven. In the final run in they scored another 10 shots for an impressive 34-13 win. A nice way for Gwilliam who was making his debut having previously been with Herefordshire.

Jack Daniels, Vince Wilks, Mike Prosser, Matt Curtis against Grant Burgess who had 14yr old Harvey Griffiths in the quartet started out by take a 6-1 lead before forging ahead at halfway to lead 13-5. In the second half, they continued to score and by the end of the match they were 24-10 winners.

Debutants Tim Bloomer, Nigel Cansdale, Keith Hinder, from Dursley, Lee Williamson had to grind out a win when up against Keith Weaver they were four shots behind at the mid-point and then were 16-9 down after 15 ends. Bouncing back, they cut the deficit to two shots with three ends to play. A five turned the match around and they went onto gain a 23-17 win.

As for the other rinks Nick Charlwood, Adam Smith, Ben Coldrick, Nick Holliday put in a gritty performance against Andy Walters scoring a valuable four late on. They had been level after ten ends 7-7 before ending up losing 23-13.

Jim Luce, Peter Stinchcombe, Max Risby, Nathan Kitchen were always chasing the game against Rob McCaughtrie after they fell behind 10-1 after five ends and then went 15-3 down. In the end, they pulled it around and only went down by seven shots 21-14.

John Smallwood and Paul Bryant, from Olveston, plus Steve Knight and Matt Cuthbert were  against Steve Poyner were level at 7-7 after ten ends and then trailed 15-11 five ends later.

The shots dried up and only scoring once in six ends they slipped to a 27-12 defeat.