IT was an early start for the Royston team of ten and their supporters on Saturday as they embarked on the journey to the Welwyn and District Bowls Club to partake in the Herts County Team Ten Competition semi-final, and hopefully the final.

IT was an early start for the Royston team of ten and their supporters on Saturday as they embarked on the journey to the Welwyn and District Bowls Club to partake in the Herts County Team Ten Competition semi-final, and hopefully the final.

In their Semi-Final they were up against a strong team from Hatfield BC, and the game proved to be closely contested.

In the Singles, Matt Coppen was up against stiff opposition, and had to work hard to eventually claim a narrow victory of 21 shots to 17.

The Pairs involved Laurie Ramsay and Peter Adams, and they too had a hard slog, but just got pipped to the post by one shot and lost 17-16.

In the Triples, Roger Davies, Simon Lee and skip Mick O’Flanagan, had a much easier ride and coasted home to a decisive 25-10 win.

The Fours were skipped by Don Sheriff, and had Brian Pepper at lead with Stan Whitehouse at two and Terry Hollands at three. Again, this was another tough game with Royston just reaching the line first by only one shot at 15 – 14.

With two points awarded for a win in each discipline, Royston had won three to Hatfield’s one, so they had made it into the final in the afternoon.

Royston’s Matt Coppen was up against a very good singles player, Neil Sharp, and he proved to live up to his name. After only a few ends, Sharp had established a good lead, and Coppen was struggling to find length and line. Sharp continued to pile on the pressure and at one time Coppen was 18-7 down. With Sharp only three shots from victory, Coppen commenced his long and arduous climb back into the game. Using a combination of shots, Coppen had to make every delivery count and, after what seemed an eternity, Coppen was at last on par with his opponent with the score at 20 shots apiece. With one last concerted effort, Coppen drew his last wood in for shot to claim the game, which was the signal for the entire Royston team to erupt into applause.

The Triples also experienced a competitive game, with skip Mick O’Flanagan, together with Roger Davies and Simon Lee, having to fight for every shot. In the end it was a close call as the Royston trio slipped to a 19-13 defeat.

Don Sheriff, skipping the Fours team of Brian Pepper, Stan Whitehouse and Terry Hollands also struggled to peg back concerted efforts by their opponents. Royston had to win to give themselves another two points and take the pressure off of the Pairs but, despite some good controlled weight bowling from Sheriff, the Royston four were just edged out by one shot on the last end with the score at 19-18.

Welwyn Garden City were now holding four points to Royston’s two and a lot now rested on the shoulders of Laurie Ramsay and Peter Adams in the Pairs as they had to win with a five-shot margin. Getting five shots to win or just four shots to force an extra end was a tall order, but the Royston pair put up a superb effort. Running out of ends, Adams had no choice but to use firing bowls to kill ends and force it to be replayed, and gain another chance to collect those illusive five shots. In the end, though, Ramsay and Adams ran out of luck and only managed to win by one shot at 18-17.

This Team Ten result was very disappointing for the Royston squad as they had tied the game on points, winning two disciplines each, but lost the match by a margin of only five shots to be relegated to runners-up but credit must be given to Royston for their achievement in reaching the finals.