A COUPLE of weeks ago I was pleased to report that the girls of Somerset’s Under 31s bowls team, after a titanic struggle, won their first round game in this year’s National Amy Rose Competition, but somewhere along the line, the Journal’s wires got crossed and announced it was a  game of cricket!  

Last week on another sunny day, and without a cricket bat in sight, the girls, along with local youngster, Chloe Holmes from Norwest Bowls Club, headed to Devizes Bowls Club for the regional finals, and once again they kept us on the edge of our seats.

Their first semi final game was played against a very strong team from Devon who were leading 15-1 after four ends, but our girls dug in, and by the 18th end they managed to finally take the lead. With only three ends to go on each rink Devon fought extra hard to make a come back, but our girls were even more determined and ended the game with a one shot lead after a nail bitingly tense final end which was accompanied by a huge sigh of relief from their supporters. 

And so to the final . . This took place after a much needed lunch break when our girls were faced with a very vocal team and supporters from Gloucestershire. This would be our girls’ third game in the competition whereas the Gloucestershire side had come straight through on byes.

I think this made our girls even more determined and although the teams were pretty even for the first six ends, the seventh end saw Olivia’s rink take the lead which they maintained for the rest of the game.

Our other rink, with Laura as skip, claimed a six on their 13th end putting them in the lead and this sewed up the game for Somerset, giving them a 51-35 win, seeing them through to the National finals. Thankfully, this game was much kinder to the Somerset supporters nervous systems!

Our amazing girls will now be going to Leamington on August 17 for the National semi final and hopefully the final. The Somerset girls won the Amy Rose Bowl competition in 2012 so let’s hope this will be a repeat performance. 

A big THANKYOU goes to Devizes Bowls Club for their excellent hospitality, to Fiona Waters the Under 31s manager, Sandra Graham, Somerset’s Ladies President and Mo Monkton from Bowls England and to all supporters.

NH