(Last week….) “It was the best of times,” (and this week…) “It was the worst of times,” as the bowlers of Parwich failed to capitalise on recent successes and, despite having “Great Expectations,” finished up returning from both Matlock Park and Wirksworth feeling “Ever so ‘umble.”
Matlock and Wirksworth; in sooth two particularly pleasant places, around which we had, of course, wished to have re-written our own “Tale of Two Cities” (later filmed as A Tale of Two Settees, starring Sofa Loren and Peter Cushion) with a better outcome, but ’twas not to be. “Our Mutual Friend”s at Matlock are a well-drilled and highly-skilled outfit, and thus a difficult team to beat at the best of times, and I’ll concede were worth their 71-51 victory on the night. Certainly the pair I came up against hardly put a wood out of place all evening and sidled in like the Artful Dodger and Marley’s Ghost on just about every end.
In the fair town of Wirksworth, with its wonderfully quirky alehouses, cosy cinema,13th Century church and “Old Curiosity Shop”s, we strived to put an end to the “Hard Times” that we have endured so far in the Thursday league. Nonetheless we were to come up short again, this time to the tune of 139 to 97, leaving us 2nd to bottom in the table. Wirksworth is a great place to play bowls, with a green surface so true and a fine new pavilion; one can enter the field of play feeling that “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done,” but believe me, on being defeated it looks a “Bleak House” indeed.
Yet a pint on the way home in one of the Town’s hostelries (just the one, mind, no need to be “Oliver Twist,”) restored the feeling that next week brings chances anew, and that, like the great Mr Wilkins Micawber, we are in a state of “Expecting something to turn up.”
Therefore by the time we sing “A Christmas Carol” on Parwich Green this year with “The Chimes” ringing from the School clock, I’ve no doubt we’ll have done the Village proud! …Mark J.
PARWICH.ORG 
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