THERE were several disappointments for Royston bowlers over the last week.

The first was in the National Mixed Fours, where the husbands and wife’s team of Simon and Laura Lee, together with Anne and Will Martin, came up against a strong team from Roebuck Bowls Club. Dropping a four on the first end and a three on the sixth didn’t help, but the Roebuck four, skipped by Steve Kilford, always had the edge and eased away to a 21 shots to 9 victory.

Disappointment number two was in the National 55 and Over Pairs competition, where Royston’s Colin Wilson and partner Mike Randall had a game which went to the wire. Wilson and Randall had trailed behind for the entire game by just a few shots, but over the last three ends had put in a short burst to score six shots. Unfortunately this wasn’t quite enough to clinch victory, and they lost by just one shot at 17-18. A good performance, but on the day it was their opponents from the Watford Club who hung on to win.

On Thursday, May 12, Royston’s Beryl Huckle, Linda O’Flanagan, and Yvonne Whitehouse, travelled to the Three Horseshoes Club in Stevenage to compete in the Ladies County Triples. Once again it was the Royston team who came second, unable to contain the home team, and losing by only five shots, at 16-11.

In the Ladies County Fours played at the Letchworth Conservatives green, it was a hard fought game which saw Royston’s four of Beryl Huckle, Yvonne Whitehouse and Linda O’Flanagan and skip Shirley Pawson, lose by just one shot. Holding two shots on the last end and in a winning position, they had to watch their opponents draw in to claim victory with an overall majority of 17 shots to 16.

It was left to Eileen Hyde to bring a ray of sunshine to Royston in the Ladies County Singles. Her opponent was M Cavaye from Abbots Langley Bowls Club. It was Hyde who soon took command of the game and romped away to a winning position of 20 shots to 9, on the 21st end.

As is often the case, collecting that single shot to win is not always easy, and it took Hyde several ends before she was able to claim victory by 21 shots to 15.

On the same day Royston fought back well in their Meldreth & District League match away to Barrington to earn a 71-66 victory.

Royston were away to Bishop Stortford on Saturday 14th May, to play in a 4xR Men and 2xR Ladies friendly.

This turned out to be an interesting game with some high scores. Skip Yvonne Whitehouse’s rink just made the tape first by one shot at 24-23. Peter Fisk’s rink was pleased with a 24-19 win, and so was the rink of Eunice Dockree with a 25-9 success. But at the top of the tree was the rink skipped by Derek Goodwin who galvanised his team of Peter Graves, Don Sheriff and Stan Whitehouse to record a breathtaking 42-12.

Royston triumphed with 146 shots to Bishop’s Stortford’s 109.

The week concluded with a prestigious match for the Royston Bowls Club which involved the Hertfordshire President’s Team, with ladies president Marcia Pearce and men’s president Raymond Smith sharing the captaincy.

Their opposition was a team from the North Division, (north Herts) captained by the chairman Paul Turner.

This was a mixed game of five rinks, and played in good spirit. At the end of the day, it was the president’s team who ran out winners by winning on four of the five rinks.