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An Unfortunate Decision

On Monday the 21st November I was very late getting to the match at the Castle. The first game was over and Adam Johnson had started throwing up on the oche for the second game. John Gartshore, his opponent, had also started throwing up but he was in the toilets! Our captain Charlie Burns asked if he could substitute me for John under the circumstances and while they were about it could they change Neil Bott for Ian Burns as well because no one new that Neil was in the pub at the time of the draw. I must point out that Neil had been in the pub for hours before the match as he had been doing some jobs for Graham but at the time of the draw no one knew where he was. The Castle captain agreed and the match continued.

Unfortunately for the Castle Neil won his game against Norman and surprisingly I won my game against Adam. We also won our doubles game which we played together. This meant that we won the match. If neither of us had played it could well have been a different result and one or two of the castle players were not best pleased. I spoke to Graham afterwards and he said that if the draw has been made and the players names have been written down they should not be changed. However, if both captains agree to a change under special circumstances then that is up to them and nothing should be said afterwards. Normally it would not have changed the result so much, but, as I say it was unfortunate for the castle. It does serve as a warning though to other teams.