It's been a few years since Buckinghamshire have lost a match at home and it showed in this latest Inter County Championship Division A Qualifying Group game.

In the first three sessions of play, Hertfordshire put up a good showing and the game points were level at 12-12 but the shots differences favoured the home side in the quest for bonus points.

In Session 1 Tony Gayler was ahead for most of his game and came out 14-11 winner.  Meanwhile Brian McGivern was getting a lesson in mat-on-mat bowling and went down 7-24.
Aaron Jones and Darren Stanford dominated their game to win 16-11 while Pauline Taylor and Jeanette Gayler slipped to an 8-18 defeat.

Session 2 followed a similar pattern.  Rebecca Nightingale, Margaret Regan and Liz Bradley started brightly but had been caught by the halfway stage and lost out 8-18.  Jill Oakes, Audrey Fowler and Brian Fowler were briefly behind at four ends before scoring a 4 to go ahead and were never caught, finishing up 14-8.  Graham Yates, Dorothy Hill, John Taylor and Peter Griffiths only took two ends off their opponents and finished on the wrong side of a 3-24 scoreline.  In the other fours game, debutants Roy Duke and Sam Salmon enjoyed themselves alongside Margaret and Alan Hare to post an impressive 16-1 win.

In the reverse singles, Tony Gayler lost 6-14 but Brian McGivern had clearly learnt a lot from his morning lesson and was never behind in a 15-9 win.  Aaron Jones and Darren Stanford couldn't repeat their earlier result, losing 8-19 while Pauline Taylor and Jeanette Gayler came back strongly to win their pairs match up 20-9.

The final session of play only yielded a single point for Hertfordshire.  Liz Bradley's triple came within 2 shots of their opposition before faltering and ended at 10-16.  The Fowlers, together with Jill Oakes won eight of their thirteen ends but could only manage a draw at 9-9.  Graham Yates, Dorothy Hill, John Taylor and Peter Griffiths couldn't recover from a bad start and lost out 9-16.  The Hares and their first time partners scored two 3s to get within one shot after the penultimate end but couldn't get that vital last shot and went down 10-12.

Buckinghamshire were stronger in all four disciplines and took a maximum 8 bonus points from this match.  To have any chance of topping the qualifying group, Hertfordshire will need Northamptonshire to help them out with a win at home to Buckinghamshire in the next match.  At least Herts will know exactly what they need to do when they go to Northampton for the final group game.