Day 5

Once again an early start, breakfast by 7:30 on the bus at 7:45. Weather was cool around 11 degrees with a max of 13, but no rain,  Light winds on the back green and fairly strong winds on the front green.. However, the Aussie Uniform kept everyone warm.

Our opposition today was Wales.The Aussie ladies again proved to be a powerful force with wins (21 to 20) singles and fours 24-17. Our men's singles was a struggle and couldn't find any rhythm, going down 12-21. The fours also started poorly being 0-14 after 9 ends. But finally found their rhythm a little too late and were defeated 17-20.

The afternoon had the ladies continue their dominance, with scores for the triples 25-6  and the pairs 18-14.

The men had a massive tussle in both the pairs and triples. The pairs went down to the wire being all square with 1 end to go. The Welsh team were excited and giving each other high fives as they held 4 shots with 1 Australian bowl to come. Ken Read then calmly got on the mat and delivered his last bowl and drew within 30cm to gain the shot. Aussie team swarmed the green to celebrate the victory.

The triples was also a close encounter but defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory with a 7-14 result..

At the end of the day the ladies have only lost 2 matches in 3 days while the men struggle with only 2 wins in 2 days.

Tomorrow the Aussies will have a battle against Scotland which is well prepared for these games as they have had plenty of practice on these types of green and a sponsorship of over $30,000 for the team. The Aussies who are predominately self funded will certainly be given the tag of "the underdog".

Andrew Owens plays for the English deaf team.. He is easily spotted around the club by his beautiful companion, Ellie, the hearing dog.  Ellie is seen with her work jacket and harness on. when she is in working mode.  However once the jacket and harness come off Ellie becomes a playful and fun loving dog, jumping up and down and running around like any other lab

Funny Irish story.
During a game a bowl was close to the boundary. The umpire was called.
No mirror or scope was used, the lady umpire had a roll of twine which she placed at one end of the rink and walked to the other placed the twine against the rink marker. It certainly was effective.











There are certainly some fun loving characters at the championship. Michael played against Vincent( pictured) He plays for the Irish Republic. Vincent told( actually signed) Michael that when he was young and growing up in Dublin, his family was very poor, so he would climb through the wall at the Guinness brewery and take the unmarked Guinness bottles of beer. They were the freshest and sell them and give his mum the money. Only problem was when the police arrived blowing whistles etc he didn't hear so he was often caught.He doesn't drink Guinness.

Colene has so far been extremely disciplined with her shopping, however maybe it is because the prices in Ireland are quite high. She went to a local supermarket and bought a bottle of Oyster Bay Sav Blanc and paid 12 pounds( $28 ).
Tomorrow she is going to the boutique fashion area OMG.