President's Bowl Singles Tournament
The final of the President's Bowl was played on Friday evening (26th March), contested by Jimmy Sansom, Ben Dugdale, Ian McDougall and Phil Smith.
The round robin format meant that all finalist would have the opportunity to play each other and a great evening of bowls was guaranteed.
The evenings drama began when Phil Smith turned up with a badly 
damaged thumb on his bowling hand. First aid had to be administered at various times during his games. With the amount of blood seeping from his injury it was difficult to distinguish between Phil's bowls and Jimmy's red ones.
In the first match Ben Dugdale stormed into an early 8-0 lead against Phil Smith, his injury obviously affecting his game. Phil rallied however and gradually reduced his deficit. At the end with Phil lying 4 and in a position to level the match, one of Ben's "legendary" firing shots reduced the count to 2 and he won the match 11-9.
In the next rink Jimmy Sansom got of to a good start against Ian 
McDougall. A fine match ensued with the standard of drawing very high as you would expect from these 2 players. Jimmy finally took the match 8-4.
Jimmy and Phil then contested the next match and after some first aid Phil started to find his form and take an early lead. Inexplicably Jimmy started to lose his length which was excellent in his first match and he fell further behind after an initial rally. Phil ran out a comfortable winner in the end 17-7.
In the other match Ian's steady drawing power gave him a good lead. Some erratic firing from Ben allowed Ian to pile on the pressure and the contrast between the two playing styles made for a very interesting match which Ian eventually won 11-8.
In the next match Ian played Phil Smith who had by now put his injury behind him and took the initial ends with some steady play to lead 8-4 by the 8th end. This pattern continued and a fine match developed with Ian taking 2 shots in the final end but Phil winning 10-6.
Again a contrast of styles in the other match with Jimmy, the classic 
draw player against the more dynamic, volatile and aggressive play of Ben. The most entertaining match of the evening got under way with ineffective driving from Ben giving Jimmy an early 9-4 advantage. Ben continued with his aggressive style and it eventually paid off as his firing shots started to hit their targets and he ran out an 11-9 winner in a very close, highly entertaining match. Opposite we see Jimmy always the perfect sportsman congratulating Ben on his fine result.
With all players having won 1 match it was down to chalks to decide 
the winner and the count back went in favour of Phil Smith. A delighted Phil accepted the trophy from Club President David Quirke.
