2:40pm Friday 3rd July 2009
HEREFORDSHIRE CBA completed their Middleton Cup section matches with a narrow six-shot away defeat to Worcestershire.
In a high-scoring clash Herefordshire came very close to a surprise victory, having three winning rinks but they were defeated by 134 shots to 128.
Herefordshire's highest winning rink was skipped by Ron Bithell, and with Colin Barnes and Dave Bithell playing very well at the front and John Bathurst, together with his skip in top form, they completely outbowled Rob Mc Caughtrie's highly rated home rink.
The Herefordshire rink, after leading 5-3 after 7 ends, scored 12 shots on the following 4 ends to lead 17-3. They followed on with a six, three, and three singles, while conceding only 5 further singles to their opponents to register a fine 29-8 victory. The control that the Herefordshire rink had was shown by the fact that Worcestershire's eight shots were comprised of singles.
The rink skipped by Sean Jones had an excellent victory, and after leading 14-9 after 12 ends they finished strongly, scoring a further 15 shots against seven conceded to win 29-16. Herefordshire's third victory was achieved by Phil Middleton's rink who were always ahead in a close game and secured a 23-20 success.
Phill Williams' rink were down 12-0 after eight ends but they fought backbefore finally losing 20-13. The rink skipped by Jim Knowles held International Grant Burgess to 24-18 after 19 ends but lost a five and four on the last two ends to finally lose by 33-18. The heaviest defeat was sustained by Paul Rainthorpe's rink who were down 24-3 after 11 ends against International Rob Stanley. The opponents' early lead could not be caught up and they lost 37-16.
Worcestershire gained 16 points against six to Herefordshire.
That left Herefordshire with a total of 12 points from four matches in the competition.
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