After successes against Milton Regis and The Grove, Tunbridge Wells in the Divisional Semis and Finals respectively, Chatham Bowling Club represented Division 3 in the final stages of the Bert Cox on Saturday 29th August. Consequently, eight hopeful and expectant players, plus travelling reserve Reg Bunn, arrived for 9.30am at Hesketh Park.
In the morning in the County Semi-finals Chatham’s two rinks were drawn against Blackheath and Greenwich. After the first few ends Chatham was 10 shots down across the two rinks, but the Chatham boys felt this did not reflect their play; on several ends early in the game they felt in control and held one or more shots, only to lose the end against the run of play
However, these early losses were to prove crucial. Both rinks were close throughout. Geoff Gough’s rink finished first with a draw. This left Roger Howell and his rink needing to score three shots for an overall win, or two shots to force the extra end. When the opposing skip picked up the jack and trailed it to within four feet of the edge of the rink, Roger was left with what most of us considered an impossible shot. There were now no woods behind the jack and anything drawn to a full length jack tended to run away into the ditch. The only chance was to promote what was now a ‘short’ bowl and to follow through so that both woods counted. Roger bowled his wood well enough and caught the nominated short wood, but both woods rolled though the head and neither counted.
Having lost a hard fought semi-final in a knock out competition, none of the team felt up to the task of playing in a third/fourth place play-off in the afternoon. Consequently, the game against Betteshanger, the other losing semi-finalists was a flat affair, and Chatham again came second.
Neither the fact that Chatham lost to the overall winners who went on to beat Northfleet in the afternoon, nor that Chatham Bowling Club had come fourth out of 157 Bert Cox entries was adequate consolation to the disappointed players.
Nevertheless, Chatham BC can be justly proud of its achievements this year and remember the high points with great satisfaction.