Middlesbrough beat Broadwas 6-1

[<<] [>>] by Dennis Scarr at Nottingham
31st August 2017 (AC - Secretary's Shield)

Last years beaten finalists, Middlesbrough met Broadwas, who defeated last years winners Hunstanton, in a previous round, in the semi final of the Secretary's Shield at neutral venue, Nottingham on 30th. August.

Middlesbrough
Andrew Killick (1) Dennis Scarr (2.5) Nigel Roberts (11) Julian Gibson (14)

Broadwas
John Guy (6) Jeremy Pardoe (8) Janet Bedford (9) John Evans (16)

The weather for the morning games lived up to the forecast of showers throughout the session.
In the doubles John and Jeremy from Broadwas with the aid of 5.5 bisques kept the Middlesbrough pair out of the game and with steady play ran out comfortable winners 26 - 14 with 1 bisque standing.

On the other lawn Julian from Middlesbrough and John from Broadwas used their bisques to establish early leads only to be pegged back by their respective opponents. Julian eventually crossed the line ahead of Janet winning 26 - 22 in a close encounter. Meanwhile, Nigel from Middlesbrough won the only morning game to go to time by a score of plus 4. 2 - 1 to Middlesbrough at lunch.

As the afternoon matches started there was brief hope of better weather before a substantial downpour put a stop to that. Eventually by late afternoon the weather did improve for the final stage of matches. Andrew and Dennis from Middlesbrough did spent a substantial time during the worst of the weather under cover as their respective opponents John and Jeremy made steady progress to what looked at one point like winning conclusions to both matches.

Indeed at one point mid afternoon Broadwas players seemed to be spending lots of time on the lawn suggesting a Broadwas charge to victory was on. However on Peg and Rover and devoid of bisques, John stumbled and Andrew was there, initially to establish parity and then sneak ahead to secure a plus 3 victory. Jeremy for Broadwas was also keeping Dennis off the lawn with controlled hoop running and good shooting. When Jeremy reached 1b and Penult Dennis did hit in and with his forward ball on 4 took his back ball to peg - a dangerous tactic which had seen him pegged out in the morning doubles. At Penult and Penult and out of bisques Jeremy suffered one of his few failed roquet attempts which allowed Dennis to take his ball from 4 to peg and win the game plus 6 and establish a winning margin in the match for Middlesbrough.

The 2 remaining singles games continued to swing until first Julian beat John by 8 and then in his second game not to finish on time Nigel beat Janet plus 2.

The score of 6 - 1 did not in any way reflect the hard fought nature of the contest which was conducted throughout in a true spirit of good sportsmanship. Thanks to Nottingham for hosting the event as Middlesbrough now move on the meet Sheffield in the final.

SCORES ( Middlesbrough names first )

A.Killick & D. Scarr lost to J.Guy & J. Pardoe 14 - 26
N. Roberts beat J. Evans 20 - 16
J. Gibson beat J. Bedford 26 - 22
A. Killick beat J. Guy 26 - 23
D. Scarr beat J. Pardoe 26 - 20
N. Roberts beat J. Bedford 22 - 20
J. Gibson beat J. Evans 26 - 18