Winter League
A review of the final day of the Division 5 season at Netherton on Thursday
I was there and witnessed it all but I still don't believe it. The Division 5 title and promotion chase had an amazing and totally unexpected outcome with all the drama that you could ever hope to endure.
Let us go back to the start to look at the Division 5 table going into the last day of the season which looked like this:
Let me set the scene for you by repeating the HuddWeb posting last week in the build-up to the final round of Division 5 fixtures. This said ...
Almondbury BC 'B' are best placed and need 3 points to guarantee promotion and 5 points to secure the Championship. They face a resurgent Brockholes 'B' team whilst the major threat to their ambitions comes from Milnsbridge 'C'. Nothing less than an 8-0 victory will secure them promotion and they need the leaders to slip up to open the door for a tilt at the title.
Thorpe Green 'C' are the third contenders but all they can do is hope that one or more of the top two slip up and offer them an opportunity to move in for the kill. They have the easiest-looking fixture on paper as they meet the bottom-of-the-table team The Rugby Club who are already doomed to collect the wooden spoon (if we had one that is).
So this is the build-up and backdrop to the last round of matches. Tension mounts as results start to come in with some surprises among them, no less than Almondbury losing their first two games 15-21 to a Brockholes 'B' side that they beat 6-2 earlier in the season.
Second-placed Milnsbridge 'C' had won their pairs game but lost the first singles game which means they were going to fall short of their 8-points target to guarantee their promotion place.
Meanwhile Thorpe Green are steadily clocking up the points with two wins in their opening two games.
The third round of games sees the division's top bowler Ian Parr collect an emphatic 21-6 win for Milnsbridge to leave them on 72 points after a 6-2 win. Thorpe Green come in next with another big win to clock up a whitewash 8-0 victory to also leave them on 72 points but with a better 'Aggregate For' total of 739-731. Thorpe Green lead the table by 8 aggregate points from Milnsbridge with the last pair on the green.
So it is all down to the final game on the green which is a singles match where Almondbury's John Clarkson is playing really well and has built up a comfortable 18-8 lead and right on course to add the two team points required to take them to 74 points and the Division 5 Championship.
But Brockholes bowler John Edgar is nothing but resilient and he starts to find a mark over the crown and starts picking up a few points. That trickle of points turns into a torrent as he adds 8 points over the next 5 ends to take him to 16-18 when Almondbury John interrupts the flow to reclaim the jack with a single-point end to take the initiative at 19-16.
But Brockholes John still hasn't given in and bowed to the seemingly inevitable, but gracious, ending to a tight game. He storms back to score two at the next two ends to take an All-but-19 lead and once again the balance of power has shifted and surely that means that there is no way back for Almondbury. Not so. John Clarkson uses all his considerable experience to find a wood from somewhere that gives him the point and a 20-20 scoreline and more importantly the jack and a lead to secure the final point of the Division 5 season.
Murmurings among the crowd as the 20-20 scoreline gets passed down the line and the tension, which has never gone away, builds up a level which has to be affecting not only the bowlers on the green but other members of the four teams (don't forget Brockholes role in all this) as the two bowlers polish their woods ready for the final end.
Almondbury John sends the jack down in front of the still large crowd near the clubhouse but his first wood is shorter than he would have liked and is passed by his opponent's first wood which rests 18" short but close enough to be a potential winner. However Almondbury John is equal to the task and his last wood trickles deceivingly towards the jack and lands a similar distance as Brockholes John's first wood. It is a measure. But there is still one more wood to be played first.
Stunned silence from the Thorpe Geen and Milnsbridge teams on the sidelines; fear and trepidation from the rest of the Almondbury team, with all the noise coming from the Brockholes team shouting their teammate on for the biggest scalp the team will have claimed in their inaugural Winter League season.
The last wood of the 14-week season will determine the outcome of the game, the match, the title and the promotion places and it sees John Edgar playing his first season in the Winter League along with his Brockholes teammates. He finds the road but has he got the pace right? Indeed he has as his final wood dips between the other two level woods to sneak in and take the end in the most dramatic of finishes that could be imagined. The acclaim, the accolades, the disbelieving and the disappointment all inter-mingled amongst the gathering.
So what does all that mean? Well it leaves Almondbury still on the 70 points that they started the day with and 2 behind both Thorpe Green and Milnsbridge. It also means that Almondbury failed to win the title but also, unbelievably, failed to gain promotion.
Almondbury John is distraught but shouldn't be as he played his full part in as memorable a finish to a season as I have ever witnessed. Alright the outcome was a huge surprise but what a finish! Wonderful theatre.
So Thorpe Green 'C' take the title along with promotion which appeared out of their grasp all day until suddenly it wasn't. Their stand-in captain Peter Haythornthwaite still didn't believe what he had seen with his own eyes as he collected the Leonard Tracey Cup from League Chairman Mike Ralph. "I really wasn't expecting this" he kept repeating. Clearly still in a state of shock which in a different setting would have called for a thermal blanket and a mug of hot sweet tea. Wonderful entertainment for the unbiased. Nerve-racking for the teams involved and congratulations to Thorpe Green the Division 5 Champions.
DIVISION 5 CHAMPIONS - THORPE GREEN C Left to right: Graham Rawlinson, Sue Hallas, Peter Haythornthwaite, Billy Beattie
DIVISION 5 - FINAL RESULTS & LEAGUE TABLE
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