Think about it!

Third round of the County 2 Bowls Singles. First to 21. I'm at home against a player who has won County titles and played in the national championships at Skegness. Bit of a challenge.

Start well on the first two ends. But a string of six winning ends puts my opponent 3-11 in the lead. By the eighteenth end I'm 7-15 down. Just not getting close enough.

Then start to pull things together. With more of the jack, I'm playing maximum length ends and getting some success. Pull the score back to 12-16. Then ditch the jack. Next two ends back to his favourite length and I'm losing 12-20. Blast!

Manage to win three consecutive ends. Score 16-20. Then ditch the jack again. I've got shot bowl as he delivers his final bowl. It's the last shot of the match. He manages to roll inside my bowl.

Get encouragement from club members spectating. But I could have won.

1. I gave the jack away twice, enabling my opponent to play his favourite length. Fatal to do this when he was at 20 and I was on a comeback.
2. On three ends I had easy chances to score a second bowl, but played either too long or short.
3. On one end my opponent had both bowls close to and on either side of the jack. Should have been an easy drive to knock them out and score two, but didn't think enough about the shot and missed. A chance to reverse that end wasn't just worth two shots. Actually worth four, since the score became 12-18 rather than 14-16 if I'd been successful.

Must spend a few seconds before every delivery thinking about the shot I'm about to play. Here's this evening's scorecard.