Gullivers crash out of Denny Cup to Horsham

After winning a few rounds last season, Gullivers crashed out of the Denny Cup in the first round 65-91 to Horsham in the two rinks at home and two away national competition.

With only 84 members, Gullivers always need to have their best players available and several late drop-outs did not help, but this gave opportunities to newcomers and they all performed very well in their debut game.

At home, Dave Ambridge, Richard Borley, Ian Wright & Ken Ferguson scored a six early on and took an 11-2 lead but the experienced Horsham side clawed their way back and ran out 22-16 winners. Ambridge, Borley and Wright were all playing their first games in the Denny and acquitted themselves very well.

On the next rink, Rob Harris was purring as smoothly as his Aston Martin car and had an excellent game at skip, as his team won 23-11 and, at one stage, were 16-3 up. Charles Wright had a good game at #3 whilst debutants Paul Whibley and Phil Coutanche played well at the front end and always set the heads up well for Wright and Harris.

Disaster struck away from home, when Mike Laxton, Mike Evans (who played well), John Gray and skip Martin Biggleston dropped a six on the first end. However, they keep fighting and, by the finish, had reduced the arrears to 20-27, a respectable scoreline. The other away team of Jeff Coates, Rob Creasey, who came in at short notice and was a great help, Keith Waters and skip John Clark struggled on short jacks and went down 6-31.

Losing in the first round means that Gullivers will take part in the Denny Plate and will play Eastbourne on 'Halloweens' 31st October, at 10 am. Any Gullivers members who want to support their club would be most appreciated, so please come along and watch some scary bowls and enjoy a coffee or something stronger at the bar.