The Battle of the White Horse

The White Horse at Alton Barnes

This was a match sprinkled with some star dust – two world champions doing battle under the gaze of a giant chalk white horse, surrounded by burial mounds. If Darren Woolridge (2011 World Champion) and the Wizard of Edale himself, Rich Waterman (2013 and 2014 World Champion) were the port and fine cheese at this boule lunch, then journeymen boulers Seb Moss and Tim Wort were very much the slightly stale pork pie –  always present but surely not likely to anyone’s pick off this menu. But what was the glass jar filled with an unknown condiment marked X on offer? That was Huw Walters, a man who has bouled since the beginning of time but, incredibly, has never graced an official extreme boule match. He was an unknown quantity.

Waterman and Woolridge collect boule under the malignant gaze of the White Horse

 

As the White Horse of Alton Barnes looked down, the players bouled over meadow, tussock, hill and hole. The going was tough, but it always is, when dreams are there to be made.

 

Seb Moss contemplates his next move whilst sitting on the White Horse's eye

Wort crumbled, a shadow of the player who once duelled with Jean Baptiste Gressier, finishing scoreless. Woolridge, more shockingly, also finished scoreless, a man still haunted by the ghosts of 2011 it seems. Debutant Walters, impressed, his command of the turf impressive, irrespective of his constant desire for a more sandy terrain. Surely that leaves Waterman as the winner? Not this time. This was Seb Moss final match in the Northern Hemisphere before being deported to Australia. Moss has bouled for a decade, yet you can count his victories on one seven fingered hand. But on this day the boule gods smiled upon him. His aim was reminiscent of a young Perrot, his subtlety of touch like Gressier in his prime and he carried the luck of Grandad John. He commanded the field, playing the best boule of his career. He pleased the White Horse and this was the match of his life.

1.       Seb Moss

2.       Huw Walters

3.       Rich Waterman

5.       Darren Woolridge

5.    Tim Wort