As The Bulls made their way to Kingsway Community Centre for the very first time, the big question was whether they could make it four wins from four and achieve what would be their best ever start to a season (that the author of this match report is aware of!)
The first session saw two 15-11 defeats in the singles as both Joe Loveys and Tony Vitale had early leads overturned by the Gloucestershire players. Meanwhile, the pairs continued their run of incredibly exciting matches. With both games close going into the final end, David Millington Jones channelled the namesake for whom he was standing in by running the jack cleanly into the ditch to guarantee himself and Ian Roe victory as they finished up 12-9. In the other game, Claire Herbert and Peter Wright produced an equally exciting final end to win 16-15.
Herefordshire looked to push on in the second session as the triples and fours took to the mats. Dean Rudman, Merion Attwood and Steve Kite worked their way to a 20-6 win whilst Dave Rush, Jill Howells and Jim Knowles lost narrowly 13-15. The fours continued their strong form for the season with Linda Lewis, Shirley Cox, Sophie Heather-Warner and Becci Cox winning 10-4 and Paul Nicholls, Kate Williams, Bryan Watkins and John Mills winning 12-4 to put the score at 10-6 to Herefordshire.
The third session kicked off with a win and a loss in the singles as Joe Loveys came back from 8-1 down to win 17-10. The points were also shared in the pairs following a close win for Millington Jones and Roe and a narrow defeat for Herbert and Wright with The Bulls doing enough to take the bonus points in that discipline.
Herefordshire entered the final session 16-12 up and with a healthy lead on shots in both disciplines. In the triples, Rudman, Attwood and Kite completed their day by winning 15-10 whilst Rush, Howells and Knowles put their earlier result behind them to win 11-9 and take The Bulls to the all important 20 point mark. Although it wasn’t to be for Cox’s rink, who lost 9-12, Mills and co balanced that out with a 18-10 win to secure the bonus points in the fours.
Herefordshire travelled back over the border smiling with a 26-14 (210-177 shot) victory, making it four wins out of four for the season and putting them top of the group ahead of the final two games of the season both at home to Gloucestershire and Avon respectively.
