Around the Greens
Edition 1 The Season Opener Welcome to the first edition of Around the Greens for the 2017/18 Bowls Season.
Another season of bowls action has begun with teams starting again with a level playing field. For some sides this will be ideal after poor campaigns last season saw them relegated to the division below. Others will be trying to keep their momentum going having been promoted on the back of a great season last year. But how did these sides go in the first round? Whose better placed to succeed at their new level, the teams going up or coming down?
On Saturday relegated men’s teams had a fairly reasonable record in their new division. With an overall record of eight wins, nine losses and two draws it may indicate that perhaps these teams on average are returning to their level. Those that did win did so relatively comfortably with an average margin of 24 shots. The teams that lost were quite competitive with an average losing margin of 17 shots which was raised significantly by one rogue 49 shot margin. Women’s teams did even better when coming down with eight of 13 clubs winning their first games last Tuesday. An average winning margin of 23 shots shows many of the sides could be contenders to bounce straight back up. When they lost however it was diabolical with four of the five losing sides getting done by more than 30 shots and perhaps showing why they were relegated.
Promoted sides as whole struggled to make their mark in their new divisions with 15 wins and a draw from 39 games. Only six women’s teams won with three of those by two shots or less. One 54 shot win greatly increased the average winning margin to 14 with only one other score higher than that. Two sides lost by more than 40 but otherwise most of the losers were around the place. For the men the ledger could have looked very different with four promoted teams losing by two shots and another by three. Had all those teams got up they would have had more than a 50 per cent record. With a 17 shot average losing margin it appears the men’s teams going up may be more competitive than their female counterparts.
Overall there was a more even distribution of wins and losses for men’s teams in their new divisions than women. Could it be that the jumps between divisions are bigger in the women’s game? The figures would certainly suggest that but of course it is just one game. Going forward these teams will get a much clearer picture of where they sit in the pecking order now.
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Article by The Rinkside Spy
