West Yorkshire League

West Yorkshire League

Harrogate v Mirfield

The day started with overcast skies and at 12pm, Diane and Harry turned the corner to pick up Shirley at her home. We were confronted by the strange sight of Irene, rubbing Mark. It was not as it first appeared. Irene was delivering greetings cards to some of her friends in the area and had bumped into Mark, who was waiting for us to give him a lift to Harrogate. Irene said she was rubbing him to give him good luck... oh! OK. Well, it must have worked, as you will find out by reading on.
I think Steve and Lucy had set off sooner, because there are some nice shops in Harrogate and Lucy likes shopping.

Anyway, we arrived at Harrogate PC terrains in the centre of town and commenced with a few practice chucks. The terrains still had their tricky slopes but they had added a lot more gravel, which made throwing boules like playing on the moon. Big splash downs, then hardly any forward motion. The divots created were like lunar craters. We went into the park to eat our lunch.

The games commenced with the usual triples games first.

Diane, Shirley and Harry were up against Harrogate's finest players in Sue, Jim and Peter. None of our Mirfield players could master that particular terrain and Harrogate raced ahead. We were fortunate to get one point on the board to avoid a 'fanny'. So Harrogate won 13-1. A double disappointment for Diane and Harry, who until then had been unbeaten in the four games they had played previously. Dejected we went to watch our team mates on the next terrain.

Mark, Steve and Lucy were up against Mike, Paul and Graham. The Mirfield trio were suffering the same fate as us. The score was 12-0 to Harrogate. My pep talk beforehand must have had some impression when I said 'Never, ever give up trying'.

The Mirfied trio only went and scored a 5, just when it mattered most. This obviously spurred them on. Mark put in some great first boule pointers that were difficult to better. Backed up by Steve and Lucy, our team began to claw back and threaten Harrogate's lead. Lots of tactical talk between our players was good to see. Then when it mattered most, Mirfield took the winning point to win 13-12. What an amazing game, cheered on by the other Mirfield trio.

So, 1 game each and onto the three pairs games.

Lucy and Steve were playing against Mike and Paul on the dreaded lunar piste. They found it difficult to play there too and ended with a loss scoring a creditable 8 to Harrogate's 13.
2 games to Harrogate 1 to Mirfield.

Mark and Shirley were playing Graham and Peter. This was on the only yet unplayed piste and was much more to our pair's liking, because they won the game by 13-3, making the match level on 2 games to Mirfield and 2 to Harrogate. It is worth noting that Mark is now unbeaten in his 4 games. Well done Mark.

So, the decider was left to Harry and Diane who were playing against Harrogate's finest players in Sue and Jim.

Our pair got off to a good start and were quickly mastering this terrain. Some clever tactics by the Mirfield pair in moving the coche from Harrogate's favoured top side of the piste to the lower side worked well and we continued to score points until we hit 11.

Harrogate began to claw back points until they reached 9 points, 2 behind Mirfield. By this time our other team members were watching and willing us on.
On the penultimate end, the on point boules changed from one team to the other. There were three boules very close to the coche. Harry managed to split them leaving them with only 1 on point boule.
On the final end, we held our 2 boules needed close to the coche. But Harrogate put in another boule to beat our two. Harry had two boules left and tried to remove the Harrogate boule, but missed. Going against normal practice of never shooting with your final boule Harry couldn't resist and he fired off his final boule to remove the Harrogate boule. Harrogate had two more boules to try and beat our boules. The first one went long. Their final boule came close, but fortunately for us they could not beat us.

Therefore, our score was 13 to Mirfield and 10 to Harrogate, giving Mirfield the Match Win by 3 games to 2.

The Mirfield crew were ecstatic. Getting a victory and making us winners on each of the five matches we have played thus far.

I believe this puts Mirfield joint top of the League with Leeds, but Leeds have a slightly better points difference than us.

Harry Overend