ALAN SETCHELL
2 June, 2025
Sport

Horsham Park’s new members shine in close win

In a nail-biting finish, Horsham Park beat Billingshurst by one point last Sunday. New members played well in their two top rinks, helping both their teams to solid victories. The final score was a 66-65. Park were 36-28 up at tea, and then Billingshurst did well to recover to the tight finish.

Josie Allen lines up the opening shot for Park at Billingshurst.

New member Julie Stone, with Farron Calver and Bryony Wood had a strong start winning all the early ends and were 13 - 7 up at tea. Then Billingshurst Captain, Barry Gilbert, won 5 of next 9 ends to reduce the deficit to 5, making final score 21 - 16 to Park. New member Mel Watson with Lorena Daane, David Clifton were 9 all after 9 ends. After tea they went up a gear and won 6 of the remaining 9 ends to finish up 21 – 13. On an unreliable rink, Josie Allen, Peter Chesser, and new skip Alan Setchell were 5 - 7 down at tea and could only manage to win a further 2 ends afterwards to close at 9 - 18. Marie Davies, Graham Roots, Kamran Nadim were 9 - 5 up at 9 ends but unfortunately dropped a 5 on end 11 and never regained the lead. Despite a very strong last end they lost 15 - 18.

Earlier in the week Park’s Mid Sussex away game at Southwater went ahead with reduced ends owing to rain, and ended in a 25-64 loss for Park. They were only able to win on 1 of the 3 rinks and that by only 1 shot. Park’s other 2 rinks went down disastrously, and Park lost the game 25-64 gaining only 2 of the 10 league points. Park’s top and only winning rink, skipped by David Clifton who with Terry Crispin, Peter Chesser and Lorena Daane had a great start and by end 10 they were up 12-6 but they could only win one more end. Southwater closed the gap but Clifton’s team hung on to win by 1 shot, 14-13. Bryony Wood’s team had a tough game. They were ahead 5-2 after 5 ends but then the Southwater team, which had 2 county bowlers, started to put up long jacks and after all the rain the green was heavy, and Park’s team struggled to reach the jack and they only won 1 more end to go down 6-27. Kamran Nadim’s team had a similarly difficult game, not so much the heavy green but both the number 3 and skip of the Southwater team played very well, turning over Park’s holding shots on many ends resulting in another loss, 5-24.