The first match of Round 3 of the Super League always promised to be a tense affair between the two first division sides with Monarchs searching for their first win and Minotaurs looking to extend their winning run to 3 matches.
In the first game Minotaurs Vickie & Pete K, unbeaten in their 4 games so far in the Super League, took on Monarchs Tony Smith & Roger Green. The game was closely fought with the lead changing hands a few times before Minotaurs turned the screw and ran out winners by 13-10. The second Minotaurs pair, Bernard & Pred, came up against Roger Griffin & Mike Jones. Bernard & Pred moved into an early lead but were pegged back by Roger & Mike only for Minotaurs to open up another lead which again was pegged back to 9-8. At this point Minotaurs, with 3 boule in hand, had a point for 4 and game, failed to take it with the first boule, put Monarchs on with the second boule and missed a shot for game with the third. Fortunately this didn’t rattle Minotaurs and they took the game 13-10 for a 2-0 lead at the change over.
The reverse pairs got underway and the first game between Vickie & Pete and Roger & Mike was another very close encounter with never more than a couple of points in it. With the score at 12-12, however, Monarchs took the final point to end Vickie & Pete’s five game winning streak. In the second game Bernard & Pred raced into an early lead and were 6-1 up. Monarchs Tony & Roger then picked up 1 or 2 points per end to slowly haul themselves back into the game and with the score at 8-8, Monarchs went into the lead for the first time, a lead that Minotaurs could not pull back, and Monarchs eventually ran out winners by 13-8.
A well fought, friendly but highly competitive affair between two extremely well matched teams which was reflected in the 2-2 draw with points also equal at 46-46.
