A sweltering Leicester BC played host to the Bears opening Midland Counties League fixture against Leicestershire. Despite winning four out of six rinks, 131-109, the game wasn’t as comfortable as the score suggests as a good start by the Bears saw a fightback by the Foxes who briefly held a small lead.

Aiden Maries (Avenue Leamington), Will Brundle (Welford), Mark Ireland (Avenue Coventry) and Andy Walters (Welford) saw their early lead overturned but hit the tenth end level on eleven all. The sides swapped singles before Walters and co took twelve unanswered shots over the next six end. Leicestershire took a four but a single and last end five gave the Walters rink a 30-16 victory. Jacob Mills, Tom Wheeler (both Rugby), Adam Shuttleworth (Whitnash) and Craig Carter (Rugby) made an excellent start, leading by eight after seven ends. With fourteen ends played Carter’s rink was now ten shots up, with five ends to play that had been cut down to five. A single, treble and five took the Bears fourteen clear, the hosts won the last two ends but couldn’t deny Carter and co their 25-15 win.

Josh Hancock (Whitnash), Steve Merrett (Avenue Coventry), Alan Prew and Dan Box (both Welford) also got away to a great start, eleven up after seven ends. A seven on the eleventh end cut the lead to just two shots, two ends later the scores were all square and the sides swapped shots to still be level with four ends left. A brace of trebles and brace of singles gave Box and co the 26-18 win. Mark Smith (Avenue Leamington), Jordan Ward (Rugby), Luke Horne and Adam Smith (both Avenue Leamington) lost the first end but recovered to lead by eight with nine ends gone. With four ends to go the lead was just one shot. A pair of singles and a treble took Smith’s rink six ahead but the Foxes won the last end to half the deficit, Smith and co winning 19-16.

James Cooper (Avenue Leamington), Martin Timms (Welford), Keith Avery and Graham Ashby (both Avenue Coventry) started badly eight down after four ends turned into eleven down with thirteen ends played. Four ends later the deficit was down to seven but Ashby and co could only halve the deficit again, losing 19-22. Ewan Mason (Rugby), Karl Finch (Avenue Leamington), Andy Sparkes (Whitnash) and Keith Wooding (Avenue Coventry) started well, six up after five ends but all square after nine ends. Wooding and co briefly moved ahead but the scores were level again after fourteen ends. Wooding’s rink could only win one of the remaining ends, falling to a 12-22 defeat.