Bucks Cup Champions 2018
Bucks Cup Final Report
Yesterday saw our Bucks Cup team make the short journey up the A5 to Stony Stratford to take on Gerrards Cross in a repeat of the 2017 final that took place 12 months earlier. Most of the players on show are team mates when they join forces to play for Bucks in the Middleton Cup but today they were friendly rivals.
The match started well for the town as each triple won the first end giving us a 7 nill lead straight away.
The triple of Alex Squires Dave Clay and Gerry Smyth had a small injury worry earlier in the day as Squires injured his back but thankfully he passed the late fitness test. They led all the way against the triple skipped by Richard Reid 7-0 up at 5 ends was closed to 9-5 at 10 ends and 10-8 at 13 ends however a big 4 on the 14th end increased the gap to 6 shots the final score was 18-11 to the town.
Jamie Seymour, Dave West and Don Savage were drawn against Jones, Hyde and Briden, on paper this always looked like it could go all the way, with scores at 3-4 at 5 ends, 7 all at 10 ends, 9 all at 13 ends before the Bletchley boys got 7 shots to Gerrards 1 shot in the last 5 ends to clinch the win 16-10
Malcolm Pratt, Dave Labrum and Mal Drage took on Harvey, Captain Gomme and Dave Ross, again very close to begin with the scores tied at 4 all at 5 ends but the Bletchley triple had a strong push between ends 5 and 12 picking up 11 shots and only dropping 1 in this period to make the score 13-5. They dropped a 3 on the 13th end before a strong finish winning 4 of the last 5 ends to run out 20-9 winners.
President Peter Benson teamed up with Rhys Lee and Dean Brookes, to play Kevin Dwyer George Reid and President Kirk Smith in a battle of the Presidents. Again like the other 3 games this started off very close with Bletchley holding a small lead of 2 shots at 5 ends, this swung round to a 3 shot lead to GX at 10 ends, Gerrards pushed on to win 5 of the last 6 ends to win 19-12 at 17 ends as Bletchley were in an unassailable lead of 17 shots with just one end to play.
So the town certainly have a love affair with the cup reaching the final 9 times in the last 11 years winning it on 6 occasions 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017 & 2018 this year they have retained the cup for only the second time in their history repeating the success they had in 2009 and 2010.
A big well done to all the players and reserves throughout the season it is not just won on one day it has been a long hard campaign that started in early May. Thank you to all the supporters that came yesterday and have supported us all year!
Thank you to Stony Stratford for hosting the day and all the county officials who ran the competition so successfully as always.
Finally to our opponents Gerrards Cross, from every single person at Bletchley Town we would like to congratulate you on a tremendous year winning a number of county titles but your season was topped off by winning the Bowls England National 2x4s competition at Leamington Spa last month something that is very special and we are all very proud of what you have done.
