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Travels with Parwich Crown Green Bowling Club take us to a plethora of entrancing venues throughout the Derbyshire countryside, but few to the aristocratic settings of England’s finest old stately homes. Such was the case, though, on Tuesday as we arrived at Chatsworth amid the sweeping vista of the magnificent building itself across the Derwent, to the tight little bowling green idyllically set betwixt the splendid estate office building and he church spire. Inspection of the team sheet revealed that the Duke of Devonshire himself was not playing that evening, evidently either not being a member or else simply too much in awe of this successful Parwich side.
Personally I found it one of the trickier greens on the circuit; compact, perplexing and with one corner at least possessing a mind of its own. Nevertheless, we set about the task nobly (would there be any other way here?) and our strivings began to pay off as we took the upper hand by the half way mark, fighting from behind in most of the games to take the match by a 73-60 margin on a night of strong sunshine and intense heat needing punctuation by several on-green drinks breaks.
Then back to the Thursday competition and we were on the road again to a strong Matlock Park side to try to strengthen our position as league leaders. The match had been put back two and a half hours to try and avoid playing in the heat of the day, something about mad dogs, Englishmen and bowlers, etc. After playing the singles games we edged into a slim lead which the Team pulled out all stops to hang on to during the doubles; not one player giving an inch, though home advantage was to win through on this occasion after two games going down to the final point, and we finished having to yield to the narrowest of margins, losing 131 to 126.
How did Bradwell get on? – was the burning question. Well the upshot was that the result means we slip to second in the table, but only under the secondary sorting criteria of points against, as league points alone mean that we are level. Reflecting on the evening in a hostelry on the way home, after an excellent steak and kidney pudding and pint of local ale, the World of bowls didn’t seem too bad, and the chance to put things right at home to Baslow next week will, I’m sure, bolster the Team to strain every last sinew to reclaim the position we feel rightfully ours. Come on Parwich, we can do this!   Mark J…