SJB win KGJ Insurance County Cup!

Sir John Bayley won the KGJ Insurance County Cup after defeating Castlefields by 32 on Bridgewater. It was much closer than the scoreline suggests, with just 2 chalks separating the teams after the first four, and 3 after the middle four.

The first four saw them sharing the games. Stuart Rutter had an up and down game with Glyn Herbert, leading 8-5 then trailing 10-8. He then went 16-11 up and won 12, but Hayden Lewis won 12 for Castlefields against Alex Jones, virtually running out from 10 across. The other two games were close, Rich Goddard was 15-6 up on Ash Gregory in the corners, but Ash battled back to actually lead 19-16. However Rich got back in and ran out. Scott Simpson had an early 9-4 lead on Mike Beer, but Mike went 13-12 up. Scott got the jack back and led 19-14 and won 17, which meant the Bayley led by 2.

The middle four saw Castlefields take the first two cards off. Jon Palmer was 6-2 down early on against Josh Hale, but went 15-9 ahead. Josh got back to trail 17-15 but Jon then ran out. Russell Pugh was impressive against Paul Evans, going 12-9 and 19-14 up on the longer marks, before winning 17 to put the Fields 8 up. The Bayley hit back though, Ayden Smith came back from 10-5 down against Tom Palmer to lead 19-13 up and from the crown, before Tom managed to get back to 15. Dave Lloyd was always ahead of Paul Williams, going 15-7 ahead but Paul battled back to trail 16-13. Lloydy though finished the game off 16 to give the Bayley a 3 shot lead.

Into the back four and Wayne Rogers and Spencer Clarke had the best quality game of the night which earned Spencer the Player of the Match award. He lead 12-7 before Wayne got back to 12 and 14 across. However Spencer went on to win 16. The momentum had shifted to a more vociferous Bayley as Chris Worthington led Adam Jones 12-0 early on, while Tom Roden went from 5-4 down against Castlefields captain Adie Rowe to 14-6 up, and Kane Beaman came back from 8-4 down to lead 13-12 versus Andy Judson. Tom further extended his lead to 20-8 and just then just had to come off to win the game for the Bayley. Adie battled valiantly though and got back to 20-14 down and led a good bowl within a foot, but Tom played it out to win the game for the Bayley. Chris finished his match changing game off winning to 5, while Kane snuck his game with Andy 20 to make it a 32 shot victory overall.

Well done to Sir John Bayley on their victory tonight.

Thank you to Bridgewater for hosting, Eddie Broad for refereeing and to Louise Cotton for measuring. Thank you to KGJ Insurance for sponsoring the competition once again.

Pictures and reaction to follow.