Category: Match

Hi Teams

Congratulations and Thank you all for participating in the MTL Gala Day.

The Final was between Mere and Alderbury and was won by Alderbury by one shot on the last end.  Downton Divas team of Alan, Marie and Lewis came third, Downton Dragons team of Steve, Dawn and Colin came joint fourth and Downton Dreamers team of Rod, Marg and Lynda came joint sixth out of nineteen triple teams from six different bowls clubs.

The Gala Day raised an impressive £293 for the Westbrook League.

Steve Allen

Another lovely day for bowls on a green that at least looked the part, against our good friends from Poole.
Rink 1 – Tony, Paul & Geoff W23-14. After losing the first end, we won 12 of the remaining 17 ends, which included 2×4 & 5×2. If we hadn’t lost a 5 on the last end, the score would have been even more emphatic. Well done guys, yet again another excellent performance.
Rink 2 – Muriel, John & Ivan L13-18. A 4 on end 8 for us tied the scores at 7-7 & we led 13-9 after 13 ends, then once again the wheels came off. We lost the last 5 ends losing 9 shots & lost the game 13-18. Indeed, we only won 7 ends in the entire match. Another frustrating, disappointing performance.
Match score Bustards 36 v 32 Gulls. Bustards 4 points, Gulls 2 points. As expected the Dolphins smashed the Kingfishers, so they now only need 2 points from 3 matches to win the league. One of these is against the Broncos, so many congratulations to them, very well played. More importantly, with the Seagulls failing to win, we are guaranteed to finish second. This is a magnificent achievement & congratulations to everyone who has played for us, especially the core six. You have been great & fully deserve your success.
Next Saturday we are at home again, hosting Highcliffe Panthers, who beat us earlier in the season. One change to our team, Lewis comes in for Muriel. The match starts at 10am & the bar will be open from midday. All spectators are very welcome.
Ivan Buss 17th August 2024.

A dry, but very windy day on a damp, slow green made for tricky match conditions.
Rink 6 – Tony, Rod & Geoff W29-12. After losing a 4 on the first end, we won 11 of the remaining 17 ends, which included a 6, a 5 & 2×4. Their team included a sprightly lady of 90! Well done guys, another excellent performance.
Rink 4 – Muriel, John & Ivan W17-13. We won 12 of the first 15 ends to lead 17-4, then tried very hard to chuck it away with 2×4 & staring down the barrel on the last end, until we fortunately managed to keep it to 1, to win 17-13. Disappointing finish, but we’ll take the win.
Match score Bustards 46 v 25 SE. Bustards 6 points, SE 0 points. We remain second in the league & need two more wins from our last four games to guarantee promotion.
Next Saturday we are at home again, hosting Poole Park Gulls. Our team remains unchanged. The match starts at 10am & the bar will be open from midday. All spectators are very welcome.
Ivan Buss 10th August 2024.

The Bustards travelled to the picturesque Meyrick Park ground on a perfect day for bowls, to take on bottom of the league Broncos. It should be noted that this is their development side. Both rinks were very quick & seemed to have a straight side & a swing side.
Rink 4 – Tony, Rod & Geoff W33-8. A 5 on the first end got us off to a good start & we were never behind. After a 2 & a 4 on ends 5 & 6 we led 11-6. After 3 lost ends, we won 8 of the last 10, which included a 6. Apart from a 2, the home side only scored a 1 on 6 other ends. Well done guys, another brilliant performance.
Rink 3 – Muriel, John & Ivan W27-7. Again, we were never behind. For some reason the home team insisted on playing down the straight side & after 7 ends they were losing 10-2. We also won 8 of the last 10 ends, which included 2×5. The home team scored 1×3, 1×2 & 2×1, as they persisted with the straight side. This was the perfect response to last week’s poor performance, very well done.
Match score Bustards 60 v 15 Broncos, easily our best performance of the season. Bustards 6 points, Broncos 0 points. We remain second in the league, now 13 points (& 127 shots) ahead of the Kingfishers, but we are 14 points (& 89 shots) behind the Dolphins, who won their game in hand 6-0. There are 5 matches left, so there are 30 points still on offer. We also play the Dolphins at home in the season finale, so it’s not over yet!
Next Saturday is a bye week. The week after, we are at home to Solar Electric. Today’s winning team will remain unchanged. This match starts at 10am & the bar will be open from midday. All spectators welcome.
Ivan Buss 27th July 2024.

Unlike the away match, where we lost both rinks to half of their first team, today we faired much better against their normal side. The rooks had done their best to make a mess of the green, which after some light rain played very, very slow & bumpy.
Rink 3 – Tony, Rod & Geoff W24-8. Winning 10 out of the first 12 ends with two 3’s & a 4, we lead 18-2 after 12 ends & this one was never in doubt. 3 more ends were won on the home stretch, leading to a convincing 24-8 win. Well done guys, a brilliant performance.
Rink 4 – Muriel, Ivan & Lewis L12-25. Good job the other rink played so well, as this team were soundly thrashed. To be honest, we were lucky to win the 7 ends we did win! Scoring 5 shots over the last 3 ends helped make the score somewhat respectable (double figures) & helped us to win the match overall, but losing a 5 on end 8 & a pathetic 6 on end 14 to trail 7-22, was really embarrassing. We need to regroup & play much better than that next week.
Match score Bustards 36 v 33 Kingfishers, thanks to the boys on Rink 3. Bustards 4 points, Kingfishers 2 points. We remain second in the league, now 11 points ahead of the Kingfishers after today’s win, but 8 behind the Dolphins who also have a game in hand.
Next Saturday we are away to Bournemouth Broncos, who are bottom of league, but are good fun to play against & their ground is very picturesque.
Ivan Buss 20th July 2024.

This proved to be a very challenging morning. Both teams found the rinks to be inconsistent & hard to read, which resulted in a very close match.
Rink 5 – Tony, Rod & Geoff L15-16. Nip & tuck all match with each team winning 9 ends. We were behind until the 12th end when we led 12-10. Trailing 13-15 after an 3 on end 15, we rallied to 15-15 with one end to play. Lying 2, their skip played a brilliant last shot of the match, to take 1 shot & the win. Another great effort from our team, who were very unlucky not to take the win.
Rink 4 – Muriel, Ivan & Lewis W20-18. I decided to change the positions in the team around & after 4 ends we were winning 6-0. After end 5, the wheels came off, losing 3, 6 & 3 on the next 3 ends to be trailing 14-6. A 4 on end 9, closed the gap & we took the lead back 16-15 on end 14. A 3 on end 17 gave us a three shot cushion & we hung on to win 20-18. A really tough match & a very well deserved hard fought victory.
Match score Bustards 35 v 34 Panthers. Bustards 4 points, Dolphins 2 points. We remain second in the league.
Next Saturday we are at home to Knyveton Kingfishers. It’s a 10am start & the bar is open from midday. All spectators are very welcome.
Ivan Buss 13th July 2024.

Last weeks match against Swanage Seagulls was cancelled, due to our ground being flooded.

Under the comp rules, we have to mutually agree a date to play the match within 15 days. The Seagulls would not agree to any of the dates I offered, so the match was deemed to be a tie, 1 point each.
That meant we remained in second 8 points ahead of the Seagulls, but are now 12.5 points behind the Dolphins, who won 5.5 to 0.5.
Ivan Buss 13th July 2024.

The 2nd placed Bustards made the long trip to take on unbeaten league leaders Swanage Dolphins.
Another beautiful day to play bowls, on a very fast, but bumpy green. Like us, they have the local rooks to thank for this!
Rink 4 – Tony, Rod & Geoff W26-7. Another great effort from the team, who on this occasion hit form right from the off. The boys only lost 4 ends & won 12 of the last 14. A 6 on end 5, 2×3 & 3×2 did the damage. A brilliant match winning performance. Very well done.
Rink 3 – Lewis, Muriel & Ivan L15-16. 10-0 after 5 ends, then we only took 1 shot over the next 6 ends, but only losing 1 short per end. A 3 on end 12 put us 14-5 up, cruising to victory. Then the wheels came off, culminating in a dismal 18th end, where we all lost the plot, lost 5 shots & lost the match! Very disappointing.
Match score Bustards 41 v 23 Dolphins. Bustards 4 points, Dolphins 2 points. At the half way point in the season, we remain in second place, but are now only 8 points behind the Dolphins. This is really annoying, as the gap should only be 4! On the plus side, that was the Bustards 6th win in a row, the Dolphins first defeat on the season & we closed the shot deficit by 22 shots (although we are still 76 shots adrift). If Knyveton Kingfishers default on one more match, they will be chucked out of the league & their record deleted. That would do us a big favour, as we lost 24-42 to them, whilst they forfeited their match with the Dolphins who would lose 6 points & 10 shots!
Next Saturday we are at home to Swanage Seagulls with an unchanged side. It’s a 10am start & the bar is open from midday. All spectators are very welcome.
Ivan Buss 29th June 2024.