Abbey's unbeaten run halted by Allenwood's surprise victory in KWWIBA

Abbey Bowls (Abbeyleix and Ballacolla, Co. Laois) had to undertake the long journey to Allenwood to take on the hosts in the Division 5 bowling league Round 6 on Monday 4th December.

Having secured near maximum points in their previous five games they would be confident of continuing with this trend, and continue to hold the number one position in the table, as they have done since the start of the campaign.

Allenwood on the other hand before their previous round were hovering fourth from the bottom, but an impressive display away from home against Clane/Staplestown where they took all five points on offer brought them up to mid-table and were hoping their recent good form would continue.

Surprisingly Easy Victory

The cracker we were all expecting fell completely ‘flat on its face’ especially on Mat 1 as the home side on the first three ends raced into a lead of eight scores to nil. When Abbey Bowls opened their scoring on the next end albeit by only one score one would have thought they would settle into the game. But far from it, the more the game progressed the more misery the hosts poured on the unfortunate visitors. Indeed half way through the game it was very obvious that there was going to be only one outcome, as Abbey Bowls failed to ‘turn up’ for this one, for whatever reason know one knows, not even themselves. Allenwood fully deserved their win and never eased off at any time during the game. Surprisingly, this was an easy victory for the home side that would have expected a stiffer challenge from Abbey Bowls. Final score: Allenwood 21 Abbey Bowls 7.

Allenwood: Michael Sullivan, Bella Aungier and Betty Cunningham.

Abbey Bowls: Lolly Kavanagh, John McDonald, Mary O’Keeffe and Eddie Hayes.

More Questions Than Answers

The game on Mat 2 turned out to be an intriguing and strange match. On the first five ends there was very little separating the sides with the home team holding a slight advantage of two scores.

But in the next five ends the game suddenly took on an entirely different perspective as Allenwood completely dominated the exchanges and raced into a unbelievable lead of twenty scores against their opponents five. As on the previous mat this game looked all over with only five more ends to play.

Abbey Bowls decided to introduce a substitution at this stage, (Mary McDonald) and immediately the game took on another twist. What an exciting and spellbinding five ends we witnessed as the visitors suddenly found their true form, and had the home team reeling with an avalanche of scores to reduce the margin to two scores with one end remaining.

With Abbey Bowls holding four in that remaining end it came right down to the last bowl for Allenwood to redeem the game, and a brilliant shot from Henry Farrell under extreme pressure duly obliged by moving the Jack away from his opponents bowls and give his team a score of two, to finish up on a final scoreline of 23/19.

More questions than answers on this one, as to how Allenwood with such a commanding lead managed to let it slip so badly and almost paid the penalty, and for Abbey Bowls why it took so long for them to find their form.

Allenwood: Jim Kenna, Bríd Scully, Mary Jacob and Henry Farrell.

Abbey Bowls: Pat Fitzpatrick, Sean Delaney, Linda Byrne, Richie Lyons and sub Mary McDonald.