DENNY CUP MATCH REPORT
On 29th January, Westlecot took on Dorchester in a 2 rinks home, 2 rinks away clash. Both sides containing quality players, this looked set to be a great encounter and it proved to be just that.
At home, Neil Smith’s rink got off to a very tough start, with their opposition, skipped by Darren Nutman, finding their feet straight away and racing into a 15-2 lead early on, Neil pegging this back to 5-15 after 10 ends. Mikey Titcombe got off to a stronger start, leading Martin Puckett 11-6. Away from home, both rinks had started excellently, with Tom Pittuck leading George Spracklen 9-4, and Scott Edwards leading Nick Voss 9-5, meaning an overall 4 shot lead at the halfway point.
By 15 ends, tides were starting to turn on the home rinks. Neil Smith charged back into contention, reducing the gap to 12-18, however the Martin Puckett rink against Mikey had battled back to level the scores at 13-13. Away from home, things remained fairly similar, with Scott slightly extending his lead to 14-9, and Tom just losing a couple of shots to still lead 11-9, meaning Westlecot’s lead was reduced to just a single shot as we moved into the business end of the match.
At the 18 end point, the match looked to be swinging in our favour, with Neil and co continuing the fightback on their rink, reducing the gap to just 2 shots now at 16-18. Despite their best efforts, Mikey’s rink were now trailing 15-18. However, away from home the scores were making very healthy reading, with Scott once again extending his lead by 1 shot to lead 17-11, and Tom extending his lead to 5 shots, now 16-11 ahead. This all meant a 6 shot cushion for Westlecot as we moved into the final stages of the match.
At this crucial point, Westlecot unfortunately dropped some counts which proved to be costly. Neil Smith’s rink lost a 3 on their last end, and Mikey Titcombe’s rink lost 4 shots in their final 3 ends, dropping two counts of 1 and a count of 2 on the final end. This meant a 17-22 loss for Neil and a 15-22 loss for Mikey. Away from home, Scott dropped a very unfortunate 4 on the 20th end, which was cancelled out by the Tom Pittuck rink scoring back to back counts of 2 in their final 2 ends. This 7 shot win overall away from home was unfortunately not quite enough to cancel out the 12 shot loss at Westlecot, meaning the Denny Cup dream was over for us and Dorchester move on into the next round.
A great game to be involved in to round off what was a brilliant run from our men in the Denny Cup this year. A fantastic achievement to reach the Quarter Finals and each and every player involved in the squad should be proud of their efforts! We wish Dorchester all the best in the Semi Finals!
Written by Mikey Titcombe
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