22/9/2022: FREEMAN'S THE MAN AS HE WINS HIS SEVENTH TITLE

THE 2022 ABINGTON MEN'S club singles final for 2022 was to be a repeat of that from four years ago, which made history as the first to be played under floodlights. This time, the game took place in the usual daylight hours, but the outcome was the same. John Freeman the champion, and Alan Dunkley the runner-up.

On that previous occasion, Freeman had snatched victory after a dramatic fightback. This time it was he eased out into a sizeable lead early on. But this was not to be a role reversal. The match continued as it started all the way to the end, with Freeman calmly finishing off one of the most dominant displays in the final of recent times, 21-9.

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The victory gave him his seventh club championship, and was a classic display of singles bowling. Freeman either built a solid head of shot, or vitally stole it with a brilliant last wood. Certainly, he did the latter enough times that he never dropped consecutive ends. Until his mark reached 21, there was always technically hope for Dunkley, but unlike four years before, this never looked like being one of those occasions.

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20/9/2022: OVER THE LAST WEEKEND, Abington not only hosted, but were involved in a succession of county finals. Unfortunately, our players were to be the runners-up in all of them.

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The big one was on the Saturday morning (Sept 17th), with the inaugural Northants Men's Top Club coming down to a meeting between the hosts and Kingsthorpe. For a good chunk of the game, Abington were in front, but ultimately couldn't quite get over the line, and the garlanded visitors became the new competition's first winners.

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Would that all five disciplines had produced a display like Dave Jones and Jonathan Brown in the pairs. They came away as the men of the whole match after a sensational 18-4 thrashing of Mick Spear and former England international Neil McKee. They had barely put a wood wrong, and their opponents threw in the towel with five ends still to play.

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However, only the fours rink (Alan Coleman, Phil Reeve, Tom Manderson and Tony O'Leary) managed to follow them off the green as winners, coming out on top of a dramatic see-sawing game in which both sides hit over 20. Abington had been playing catch-up after Adam Brown's defeat in the 2-wood, but looked good to make it back with the singles and triples both launching into orbit in the early ends. Sadly, they couldn't finish quite as strongly, and both, along with the title, were snatched from our grasp at the death.

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Solace was not to come for either Reeve or Jones the following day, both county runners-up again. The former was in the mixed pairs final with Gill Crossley, who by all accounts bowled brilliantly. But not quite brilliantly enough to lock out Kettering Lodge's international star Connor Cinato. About two-thirds of the way through, Phil and Gill threatened a bizarre equalising of arrears, holding four shots on the back of a five, but Cinato rescued the shot, and he and partner Sian Hughes-Jones resumed their remorseless run to glory.

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While that was going on, Dave Jones was fighting his way through the quarters and semis of the Crystal Bowl, Bowls Northants' 3-wood singles tournament for players without a recent history of county finals. By the afternoon, Brackley's Sam Wright was all that stood in the way of the trophy remaining at Abington for a second year, but Jones once again had to settle for silver after losing the extra end.

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10/9/2022: TWO ABINGTON RINKS made appearances at the National Championships last week, representing not just the club but the whole of Northamptonshire, in the men's fours and men's senior fours. Both appearances were sadly fleeting, but will be retold many times.

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Dave Poole, who led the former, ensured it would be a memorable - and possibly even historic - occasion before the first wood was even delivered. Ahead of their 1st round match on the afternoon of Sunday, 4th September, he was granted the announcer's mic and proposed to his long-time partner, and fellow Abington member, Christine Ball!

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The good vibes continued into the match itself, with the Northamptonshire four (Poole, Allen Johnson, Alan Mann and county president Peter Milburn) controlling the first half of proceedings, and maintaining a narrow 3-shot lead heading into the second. As the second half progressed though, their opponents' greater experience of elite-level bowls began to tell. Slowly but surely, the grip on the game transferred to the Wiltshire rink, and a dropped four on the penultimate end effectively confirmed Milburn and co's exit.

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Said rink were from Royal Wootton Bassett B.C., who had provided the national champions in this same event just four years before. Although it wasn't the same lineup, three of the four, most notably skip Neil Collett, were experienced Middleton Cup players. Our men couldn't boast anything like that between them - but they could walk away extremely proud of a magnificently gallant run to this exalted stage, and a sharp, focused performance on it that came close to another great scalp. Abington will forever remain proud of their achievement.​

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Three days later it was the turn of Colin Barnes, Dave Jones, Alan Dunkley and club president Jonathan Brown in the seniors version of that competition, though there is enough talent amongst the self-styled 'Dream Team' that its lineup wouldn't look out of place in the main fours. Unfortunately, they were forced to admit that the first third of the game had been closer to a nightmare.

Placed on the lesser-used 'E' green for their prelim vs Herefordshire's representatives, they struggled to cope with its heavier pace in the early exchanges and found themselves 12 down. But, they would prove their quality with a determined fightback that took the game to the wire, and the brink of victory, laying four with just one opposition wood to play. That Herefordshire skip Graham Merredy (of Eastnor B.C.) produced an inch-perfect draw under such pressure, and long after the momentum of the game had swung our men's way, is only to be applauded.

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So, Abington's latest Leamington adventure is over, but both will occupy a special pride of place on the club's roll of honour. And the signs are they will be joined by a few more in the seasons ahead.

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(She said yes, by the way.)

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