Hollywood secure first away points thanks improved performance against St Laurence's

First Away Points For Hollywood

The Hollywood bowling club undertook the journey to the St Laurence's venue on Monday November 28 to take on St Laurence's in this Division 2 game.

Hollywood, up to this stage in the competition have failed to secure any points in their away matches, and by virtue of that failure find themselves lying second from the bottom of the table.

But they stopped the trend in this game to take a very hard earned two points from difficult opponents.

Full of Confidence

Mat 1: Hollywood would rather if this mat was best forgotten, because a completely ‘off form’ Hollywood never looked like they would mount any kind of challenge to a St Laurence's team that from the start were the completely dominant force.

A blistering start by the home side on the first end where they recorded a score of three wasn’t a worrying factor for the visitors, as this can often happen in games. But when St Laurence's on the second end added four more scores and again on the third end surpassed that with a score of six there was going to be no way back for Hollywood bar a miracle.

By the finish of the seventh end the home side had an astonishing twenty scores to show whereas their opponents had so far failed to register a single score.

On the eight end Hollywood opened their account with a score of one, but with their opponents full of confidence at this stage they continued to heap more misery on them.

One has to commend the visitors for trying so hard even when it was a lost cause, but in fairness to them there were times when ‘lady luck’ didn’t shine on them.

Final score: St. Laurences 26, Hollywood 10.

St Laurence's: Anthony Archibold, Paddy Lawlor, Willie Fennin, Mick O’Rourke and sub Peter Hyland.

Hollywood: Peter Byrne, Paddy Byrne, Rita Flannigan, Kevin Byrne and sub Maura Byrne.

Smashing Game

Mat 2: We may not have got any excitement or value on mat 1 but this mat was a real tonic.

This was a smashing game of bowls from start to finish.

The home side were first to score on this mat also, but only a score of one, again on the next end another score of one. On the third end the visitors opened their account, scoring two to level the game. With both sides in top flight it was obvious even at this early stage that this was going to be ‘one hell of a game’. And sure enough it didn’t disappoint.

On the fourth end Hollywood for the first time took a lead of one, but this was short lived because on the next end the sides were level again at three scores apiece.

On the next couple of ends with Hollywood having the better of the exchanges gave themselves an advantage of four. The home side narrowed this lead down to three on the eight end, but when the visitors increased that lead to four once more we were left wondering could the host close that gap sufficiently to stay within reach.

By the eleventh end St Laurence's had reduced the margin to the bare minimum and the game was really in the ‘melting pot’ again. Hollywood responded to put a gap of three between them, the home side reduced this to two on the next end.

Two ends to go and still all to play for with the pressure now on both sides, Hollywood to try and hang on and St Laurence's to try and redeem the situation.

On the fourteenth the visitors pushed their lead up to four again and at least gave a bit of breathing space going into the last end.

What a finale to this game as St Laurence's threw everything into this last end to try and rescue the game, but could only muster a score of two and just fell short by a narrow margin.

The real winner in this one was the game of bowls itself.

Final score: St Laurence's 10 Hollywood 12.

Hollywood will be happy with their 2 points especially as this is their first win away from home and St Laurence's with 3 points keep their team around mid-table in the league.

St. Laurences: Liam Kirby, Paddy Keogh, Charlie O’Rourke, Paddy Murphy and sub Kaye Kirby.