This year the Level Play team have been struggling in the Premier League, having won promotion last year. It’s proved to be tough and our match against Bristol CC on Tuesday 13th August was no exception. Bristol, still in contention to win the league, fielded a strong team. The match was played in a fantastic spirit as many of the players knew each other and, most importantly of all, we managed to finish before the forecast rain. The final score was Bristol 14, CPCC 6. So, we unfortunately finish bottom of our league and now face the prospect of relegation back to our natural home in the Level Pay (North) League. The silver lining is there will be less widespread travel to our matches next season.
As ever, todays biggest challenge was to find an interesting photo to accompany this article. On two separate occasions the black ball got stuck in the hoop it was trying to run! When the hoops are tight, 1/32nd of an inch clearance either side of the ball, and on hot days this is not as unusual as you might think. It is often the black ball that sticks as it is thought it absorbs more heat and therefore expands slightly more than other balls. In our case the ball was found to be very slightly oval because it could run the hoop cleanly, but when turned it stuck fast. Colin, whose ball it was, happily blamed the “egg-shaped ball” for all his previous unsuccessful shots!
On both occasions the referee was called and the hoop was re-set and the shot re-played.