DORCHESTER 62

POOLE DOLPHIN 81

DORCHESTER’S ambition to reach the final of the prestigious Yetton Trophy floundered at the semi-final stage, after a fine performance ended in an 81-62 defeat to Poole Dolphin.

There was an early promise of upsetting their more fancied opponents, but the county town side ultimately fell at the Warwickshire venue of Rugby Thornfield Bowls Club.

Having reached the semi-final of the plate last season, Dorchester’s improved performances this season in the main competition enabled them to achieve a record-breaking run to the last four.

The opening end of the semi-final was taken by Dolphin on all four of the Dorchester rinks as the Poole club posted a confident 9-0 start.

At the conclusion of the fifth of the 21 ends, three of the Dorchester rinks were back in business with a combined aggregate score of 13 shots apiece.

Unfortunately one of the county town rinks was having a bad day at the office and now trailed by nine shots at 11-2.

Julie Corbin, Sue Jennings, Isabelle Addison and skip Freda Yates were under immediate pressure from the Dolphin rink, skipped by Lyn Howard, and were unable to keep pace with their opponents.

Dorchester were giving a spirited display on the adjacent rink, where Louise Woodrow, Sue Maggs, Melissa Makepeace and skip Di Lunn were taking the fight to England international Julie Leake and her rink.

From a 4-4 count they progressed to a 12-9 lead and were able to hold a 14-12 lead after 16 ends.

At the same stage, Ronnie Stevenson, Carol Baker, Sandra Hubbard and Barbara Lacey returned to skip after recovering from a recent broken arm.

The foursome were tearing their Dolphin opponents apart and had amassed a remarkable 23-5 advantage, as Lacey and co had the experienced Dolphin player Penny Cresswell on the run.

The fourth Dorchester rink, skipped by Margaret Cullip and supported by Ros Gwatkin, Jan Cherry and Linda Hill, recovered from a disappointing 7-0 deficit, to fight back to just two shots adrift at 15-13, as they began to trade shots with Dolphin’s Ann Warner.

The overall position at 16 ends showed an encouraging tied score of 55 shots each – despite Yates and her colleagues remaining under the cosh, and suffering at 23-5 down.

With the game now in the balance and each rink having five ends to play, Dorchester supporters were now hoping for a determined race to the finishing line.

However, in the event it was the Dolphin Club that fared better over the final ends as they took shots off all the Dorchester rinks – with the exception of the struggling Yates rink who showed a plus gain.

Yates however, finally ended 17 shots behind recording a 26-9 loss, whereas Di Lunn finished only three shots down at 18-15.

Barbara Lacey’s rink slipped from their very dominant 18-shot lead, to post the best Dorchester performance of the day with a highly creditable top rink 24-15 score.

Dolphin had serenely crossed the finish line with an aggregate 19-shots advantage.

The final result was a harsh ending to the brave Dorchester performance earlier in the game.

Dolphin went on to play holders York in the final, following their narrow 76-69 ousting of St Neots.

York had no intention of letting go of the trophy, as they overcame Dolphin by the convincing score of 77-62, in game that was a mirror image of the all-Dorset semi-final.

Dorchester had to content themselves with the achievement of being the only club, up to the final, to score 60 plus shots against Dolphin this season.