Stamford Friendly Team Stumped at Boston

Post date: Mar 24, 2019 9:21:57 PM

Every one had played the stipulated eighteen ends apart from rink four. The aggregate score was 103-101 in our favour. They, the Boston Stumpers, were holding two , the jack was in the ditch. Their skip, affectionately known as “Tricky Trev”, we don’t know what he was unaffectionately called, stood trembling on the mat with the last wood in his hand. A crowd had gathered behind the rink, all six of them. The rest were fighting to get a drink at the bar.

Up went the chant, “Trev, Trev, Trev”. With his eyes shut he hurled the wood down the rink, it wobbled from start to finish and ricocheted off one, two and three woods and finished half an inch from the edge of the ditch next to the jack. Three to them and a win by one. Never mind about “Tricky Trev”, more like words which are not for the eye’s of the hundreds, nay, maybe even more than that, who will be reading this, hanging on to every word. Sorry, you’ll have to use your imagination. Answers on a postcard please.

After beating the “ Stumps” on our muck heap by thirty one shots and leading by twelve at the halfway stage, our captain Maggie was dreaming of a double. But, as Nigel Trigg kept reminding his team mates on rink four, the wheels came off bringing back memories of those slippery slope days of old.

If it’s any consolation, which it isn’t, we won on four rinks with our best rink triumphing with a score of 28-16, being heralded as “Girl Power” by our three female musketeers, Maggie Holden, Jean Dupree and Stella Henshaw.

There was the usual excitement before the start, mainly by our train spotting “Anorak” Ken (choo, choo) White, who had left two of his woods at a club, the name of which he couldn’t remember. Howard (im from up north) Neath lent him one of his for an undisclosed fee of which was only known to the two of them. And at the end Ken surprised us all by filling in his scorecard using joined-up writing which he must have learned since last week.

So there’s only one of these, some say “Friendlies” others tell the truth, left this season. It’s against those rivals who we don’t mention from down the road, Peterborough. If we don’t beat them the writer of this will eat his hat, if he had one!

Rinks scores: Caroline Gray, Howard Neath, Peter Gray won 16-14; Rosemary Roberts, Margaret Grainger, Dave Edwards lost 17-18; Maggie Holden, Jean Dupree, Stella Henshaw won 28-16; Denis Stapleton, Bob Oliver, Nigel Trigg lost 11-24; Ken Rawlins, Pam Heather, Ken White won 16-14; Reg Goode, Serena Brunning, Jill Goode won 19-15.

Sorry there’s no photo this week. He who was supposed to take it was so emotionally upset at the end that it went completely out of his head. You can’t get the staff! D.S.