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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Result (Northants names only): <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
VICTORY AT LAST FOR NEWTON TEAM<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Results (Northants names only): <\/p>\n
Newton Trophy ( at City of Peterborough): Northants 180 (20pts) Hunts 137 (2).
\nJ 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;
\nL Sharp (Yaxley), M Greaves, Alec Emery (P&D) won 30-21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … <\/p>\n