THE start of the season has been difficult for the bowlers at Frome Park; early results have been a little disappointing and players’ form has not been consistent, as many are adapting to playing outdoors again after the winter of indoor bowls.
The men have lost three friendlies in a row. The first of these was at home against Knowle, a close game with both sides winning on two rinks each, but Knowle just sneaked the win by 4 shots overall, final score 63 – 67.
The top rink for the Park was Clive Smith, Dave Whitehead, Wayne Pitts and Mike Gulliford who had a dramatic win by picking up shots on the last 4 ends including 5 shots on the final end of the game to seal a ‘come from behind’ win of 21 – 15. The other winning rink was Alan Cottle, Richard Phillips, Colin Henning and Peter Jennings who won 3 of the last 4 ends to sneak home by 16 – 13.
The next defeat was an away match at Castle Cary; the home side were always looking the most likely to claim victory and eventually ran out the winners by a 91 – 73 score line. Frome Park had only 1 winning rink, Richard Phillips, Jim McAlpine, Colin Henning and Mike Gulliford claimed a good win by 24 – 18 after a close game where the game was all tied with 7 ends remaining, and they rallied late on with 11 shots in those closing ends.
The men then travelled to Purnells on Saturday 5th May on a glorious warm and sunny afternoon for one of their favourite friendly fixtures. The green played well and both sides produced some decent bowling. The honours were even across the rinks, with both sides having wins on 2 of these, but unfortunately the losing rinks for the Park were well beaten.
Frome’s best winning rink was Dave Laycock, Derek Armiger, Ian Buchan and Alan Totterdell, who held on after a late charge by their opponents to win by 4 shots, 22 – 18. The other winning rink was John Curtis, Kim Pitts, John Pritchard and Steve West, they came back from a dreadful start when they were 9 – 0 down after 5 ends, dragged themselves back into the game and drew level at 12 – 12 at 16 ends and eventually won the last end to take a 16 – 15 victory.
The mixed teams have also had an indifferent start, with some losses in their friendlies. On Sunday 29th April Frome Park visited Gillingham. On their own green, Gillingham always had the upper hand and won on all 4 rinks with an overall result which was an overall victory for Gillingham 75 – 49. The best rink for Frome was Terry Wells, Myra Drew, Wayne Pitts and Peter Jennings, who only lost by 16 shots to 18 on their rink.
On Wednesday 2nd May Frome Park visited Mere for a game of Triples. Once again Frome Park lost to the home side by 50 shots to 65. The Park managed to claim a win on one rink and another drew on theirs, but the other two rinks lost. Frome’s best rink was Chris Bailey-Green, Olive Maidment and Richard Phillips who played very well together and ran out easy winners with a 17 shots to 8 victory.
On Friday 4th May, local rival Frome Selwood visited the Park to play the annual mixed match for the Fricker Cup. In a very close game throughout, Selwood just claimed victory on the very last end played, to win overall by only 3 shots. The result was in the balance for most of the match, there was two rinks that drew, one Frome rink lost by 6 shots and the Park rink that did win was that of Myra Drew, Terry Drew, Val Church and Trevor Elms who won by 3 shots. Frome Selwood get the trophy for this season.
The ladies have already been in league action. They started their campaign well with a win over Purnells claiming all 12 points, but then came back down to earth next time when they lost at Street by the same margin, coming home with no points.
