Northants’ winless Adams Trophy season continued with a 16-6 home defeat at the Blackstones green against Hunts who came with a late surge of scoring to win by three shots.
With just a handful of ends to play and non-playing captain Jonathan Earl pacing the sidelines, clipboard in hand, Northants held a slender lead. But momentum suddenly switched to the visitors who picked up big counts in the closing stages as the home side stumbled.
Earlier, with Hunts struggling to come to terms with the slick surface, Northants led 32-4 after five ends, 99-71 after 15 and 144-130 with five ends to play, before their challenge collapsed.
Having dominated for long stretches Paul Dalliday, Mick Humphreys and Adam Warrington dropped six in the last three ends, Wayne Morris, Mark Pye and Tom Fielding – earning his Adams Badge for at least six appearances – conceded ten in the last three and Steve Roden, Graham Agger and Paul Bailey dropped a five count on the final end.
Elsewhere, Brian Martin, Stephen Harris and Martyn Dolby took the rink honours 30-23 – after leading 24-12 at 20 ends, while fightback of the day was provided by Roger Stevens, Bob Warters and Paul Buckley who tried almost every positional combination – as Federation rules allow – to recover a 16-22 deficit and win 29-26.
And in a ding-dong battle in which there was rarely a shot to separate the teams, Trevor Smith, Ally McNaughton and John Holroyd snatched victory from the jaws of a 24-25 deficit in the last two ends.
FOOTNOTE: In a generous gesture, former Adams Cup winner Roger Martin, who has been sidelined by illness this season, stepped in to buy a commiserating drink for each of the Northants team to celebrate his 70th birthday.
Result (Northants names only):
Adams Trophy (at Blackstones) : Northants 167 (6pts) Hunts 170 (16). R Stevens (Whittlesey Manor), B Warters (Ketton), P Buckley (Blackstones) won 29-26; P Dalliday (Parkway), M Humphreys, A Warrington (both Blackstones) lost 30-32; B Martin (Parkway), S Harris, M Dolby (Blackstones) won 30-23; W Morris, P Pye, T Fielding (all Blackstones) lost 21-27; S Roden, G Agger (both Whittlesey Manor), P Bailey (Blackstones) lost 30-37; T Smith (Blackstones), A McNaughton (Wittering), J Holroyd (Stamford Town) won 29-25.
VICTORY AT LAST FOR NEWTON TEAM
Finally Northants Newton team – who had also been on a three match losing streak – finally had something to cheer, taking 20 of the 22 points available at home to Hunts at City of Peterborough.
With a steady accumulation of points throughout the 31-end, two-bowl triples match over six rinks, it was a good morale booster for the team’s final game against Norfolk on July 6.
While the Conservative/Peterborough and District combination of Andy Dyer, Tony Kemp and Brian Bassam took the rink honours convincingly 41-15 for the second consecutive week, the only defeat came on Malcolm Squires rink – with Martin Stokes and Cliff Watson – who got within two shots before losing 24-23.
Results (Northants names only):
Newton Trophy ( at City of Peterborough): Northants 180 (20pts) Hunts 137 (2).
J Clipston (P&D), P Jessop (West Ward), F Richardson (CoP) won 28-25; M Stokes (Balckstones), C Watson (P & D), M Squires (CoP) lost 24-33; D Corney (P & D), Z Brown, D Noble (P & D ) won 29-18; A Dyer, T Kemp (Conservative), B Bassam (P & D) won 41-15; D Roberts (Market Deeping), M Linnell (WM), R Strong (CoP) won 28-25;
L Sharp (Yaxley), M Greaves, Alec Emery (P&D) won 30-21.
