Stamford's Huntings Done!

Post date: Feb 13, 2018 8:54:36 AM

Last week our resourceful weekend friendlies captain Maggie Holden had to find nine replacements at the last minute due to members of her selected team forgetting that it was their turn to take the dog for a walk or had discovered a hangnail that they hadn't had for at least ten years. For this weekend's match against Huntingdon we had already agreed to lend them one player after a mid week discussion to make them up to eighteen.

Maggie's phone rang again at 9am on Sunday morning. "Hello, Huntingdon here again, someone else has dropped out, can you lend us another? A quick call to Bob Warters, who was having his first bowling day off for ten days, he who said you can always call on me if need be, and she had made the numbers up again.

So, with ten minutes to go everybody who was supposed to turn up had and Maggie and Bob, as agreed with their captain, who had just had a large amount of something taken from the inside of his nose (we don't wish to know what) and wasn't supposed to play for three months, played one and two for them on the same rink. A check was made that all our team had taken their pre-subscribed tablets and off they went.

Six all after one only on the first two ends and now it's for real; we need to be well ahead in preparation for the slippery second half slope. After four ends we are 17-29 down with only Nigel Trigg's rink leading 8-2. Maggie and Bob were the opposition’s best rink 8-0 up. At the halfway stage we are nineteen behind, obviously the tablets haven't worked and have had a strange effect on our resident lap dancer Arthur Lonslow who put in three blockers even though we were two down. With a cry of "it's a game of two halves" we slither into the final nine hoping to avoid now what has become the unmentionable.

Meanwhile Maggie and Bob are still slaving away for the opposition 14-4 up and looking a good bet for their and the overall best rink. Who agreed that they could play for them, we must look at getting the rules, if there are any, changed. A trumpet sounds, no it's not, it's the Hunts captain blowing his nose with tears streaming from his eyes and mumbling "I'll be ok, I'll be ok.

Within three ends to play we are 75-91 down, only sixteen adrift. It's not impossible, miracles can happen. How is it then after the stipulated eighteen ends we finished up 92-113, twenty one down! We can claim that our Maggie and Bob did win the best rink prize, but Maggie insists that it was down to their skip who played a blinder and it was a friendly. Oh no it wasn't! Nigel Trigg, Janet Benns and Ann Preston Bambridge were our best rink a habit they are getting used to. Their captain was last seen going out the door swigging from a bottle of Rosewater and Glycerine. Let's hope he's feeling better.

Finally congratulations to Mel and her catering staff for a real high quality meal comprising Hunters Chicken followed by Filo pastry filled with mixed fruit. Fit for a queen or king.

The next encounters of a strange kind are supposed to be against Boston this Saturday. Last year they turned up with seven players. Watch this space!

For those who might be interested our rink scores were: Ann Preston- Bambridge, Janet Benns, Nigel Trigg won 23-15; Janet Dye, Margaret Grainger, Maurice Dye lost 9-27; Rosemary Roberts, Cherry Burgess, Helen Holroyd won 22-16; Janet Lonslow, Ken White, Arthur Lonslow won 15-13; Vanessa Shackleton, Serena Brunning, James Hebden won 17-12; Colin Burgess, Bob Hulka, Ron Blake lost 6-30.

D.S.