Herefordshire’s final County game of the year and penultimate group stage game of the season saw Worcestershire make the short trip south to Leominster looking to avenge the 38-2 defeat inflicted by The Bulls in October. For Herefordshire, the match provided a chance to solidify second place and keep themselves in touching distance of group leaders West Midlands.
The opening session saw two fantastic wins in the singles as Joe Loveys and Kate Willaims won 16-8 and 18-4 respectively. However, two close games in the pairs both went the way of Worcester to put the score at 4-4 heading into the triples and fours.
With the results in the pairs providing a stark warning to The Bulls, the second session went out looking to push on and build a lead. In the triples a brilliant 25-9 win for Anthony Chesterton, Phil Ladd & John Mills set the tone as they were joined in victory by Dean Rudman, Nic Lloyd & Merion Attwood who themselves won 15-7. A similar story followed in the fours as the rinks of Shirley Cox, Linda Lewis, Sophie Heather-Warner & Becci Cox and David Millington Jones, Gary Peachey, Dave Watkins & Ian Roe won 16-5 and 19-1 respectively to take a clean sweep for the session and put Herefordshire 12-4 up at the halfway stage.
Keen to keep the momentum going in the second half, The Bulls started well once again with two more wins in the singles taking the maximum 10 points for the discipline. Meanwhile, both pairings of Dave Andrews & Steve Kite and Tony Vitale & Bryan Watkins put their morning losses behind them to win 15-7 and 16-14 respectively, taking the bonus points for the discipline and giving Herefordshire their second clean sweep of the match to lead 24-4 heading into the final session.
In similar fashion to the morning, the triples and fours produced some brilliant bowling all round and some fantastic results. Two more wins in the triples gave them maximum points for the match whilst the performance of the day came from Ian Roe’s rink who won 28-6 in a game that included a hotshot (getting a maximum 8 shots in a fours game- a rare achievement) as well as two sixes to round off the day in an incredible way.
With maximum points in the singles, triples and fours and just the two losses in the pairs, Herefordshire sealed a convincing 36-4, 271-123 win to book their place in the “main” knockout draw. The Bulls look forward to welcoming the formidable West Midlands to Leominster in the New Year for the final group game of the 2025/26 season.
