Only a week after their agonising 21-19 loss away at Wiltshire, Herefordshire looked to get back on track in their first home game of the season, facing old rivals Gloucestershire in a matchup that always promises to deliver a good day of bowling!
Herefordshire welcomed back Captain Becci Cox who made wholesale changes to the structure of the team lineup whilst retaining the large majority of those who featured against Wiltshire. Also returning to the team was Jim Knowles of St Martins in the triples whose clubmate Pete Goulding made his first appearance for the county team in the fours.
The first session saw a strong Gloucestershire singles and pairs lineup take control as both Joe Loveys and Bryan Watkins fell to defeat in the singles as Lynn Williams and Ian Roe also lost out in the pairs. However, a fantastic 22-9 victory for Gary Peachey and David Millington Jones gave hope whilst also putting the pairs in with a strong chance of securing the bonus, with the score at 6-2 to Gloucestershire following the first session.
The Bulls knew that a strong second session was needed to give hope of a comeback and that was exactly what was delivered. A complete performance from the triple of Luke Rawlings, Dave Watkins and John Mills saw them take an 18-6 win whilst Alan Link, Dean Rudman and Jim Knowles picked up a 17-11 victory to put the triples in good stead ahead of the afternoon. It was a slightly closer story in the fours as Pete Goulding, Nic Lloyd, Merion Attwood & Tony Vitale battled to a 14-7 win whilst Anthony Chesterton, Sophie Heather-Warner, Shirley & Becci Cox just missed out 8-10 putting the overall score level at 8-8 at the halfway stage.
Trying to put the first session behind them, the singles pushed back as Joe Loveys took a 17-6 win whilst a battling Watkins could not avoid defeat in a resilient performance against one half of the World Pairs Champions, Saul Fetherstone as the singles lost out on the bonus points. Meanwhile, the pairs were looking to balance things out as Williams and Roe fought hard for a 14-9 win as Peachey and Millington Jones almost pulled off a fantastic comeback, just losing out 14-15 following a fire on the final end from the Gloucester skip to take the win. This was more than enough for Herefordshire to secure the bonus points in the pairs, splitting the session with the score ticking up to 14-14 heading into the final session.
Memories of the previous week were starting to creep in as the session began but The Bulls showed their character and fought hard as they pushed for victory. The first to finish was Jim Knowles’ triple who convincingly won 17-5, effectively guaranteeing the bonus point for the discipline and putting Herefordshire 18-14 up. A win for Mills’ triple swiftly followed, completing the clean sweep for the day in the triples, as The Bulls hit the magic 20 point mark, needing just one more to secure victory. Both fours matches followed similar patterns, having a close start before Herefordshire took control as Cox & Vitale’s teams won 12-6 and 14-4 respectively to deliver a 12-0 win for Herefordshire in the final session and an overall 26-14 (216-160) victory.
