I’m afraid you’ll have to nip to the library or buy a copy of today’s Times to read the article properly.
“Peckham Bowls was left abandoned and derelict for eight years. That was until two 35 year old friends who grew up together in Lewisham took it over……”
”Lawn bowls is becoming the Millenials new favourite sport.”
How brilliant is that?!
There are just two disciplines left at Leamington for Middlesex. The Senior Singles. Attilio from Uxbridge plays this morning and Hannah ( who put out Tina) plays this afternoon.
The Men’s and Ladies Top Club finals are today. Egham ladies are through. Most of the team are familiar to us from indoor comps and county matches, so we wish them well.
Ashford play their final R&B League match today, so we should tonight if it’s us or them playing in the final next Sunday at Mid Surrey
Our friendly v Hurlingham Club has been postponed so the next activity to look forward to is The Crown Green Bowls without a Crown on Monday starting at 10:00.
if anyone hasn’t signed up and still wants to join in, please let Ange know today, especially if you are coming to the lunchtime BBQ. Don’t forget to wear a hat!
The trouble with having a day off work at the beginning of the week, it makes it confusing to what day it really is!
It was Thursday so I’ve changed the post heading for yesterdays post.
Hannah was first up on D green. This was a challenge (as two others of us found out!). The green was very fast, looking like the baise on a snooker table, going towards the river. The bowl had barely left your hand when it was at the other end of the green. Coming back the other way was completely different. It was a good 2-3 yards heavier which was bizarre.
Hannah had a good game but went down by 3 shots to her Cambs opponent.
Next up was Ashley from Ashford, who dispatched his opponent fairly swiftly on E green.
Dawn started at the same time as Ashley on C green, but was still playing when everyone had gone off for lunch! It was nip and tuck all game and Dawn was 12-10 up before dropping two 2’s to go 12-14 with 3 ends to go. She picked up two 1’s so that it was 14-14 going into the 21st end.
Dawn put her first bowl a foot wide of jack and her opponent came in to take the jack another 4 feet. Oh no. What to do now? A straighter forehand or a very wide backhand (it was taking about 5 feet of green before turning into the centre).
The decision was backhand. The bowl started its journey and then curved back and, unbelievably, caught the jack and took it back another 5 feet with Dawn’s bowl holding shot a couple of feet from the jack’s new resting place. Crikey, the best shot of the day! Her opponent narrowed her delivery line and added plenty of weight but got wooded on Dawn’s first bowl. Dawn progressed into the final 16.
The second match was on D green, as described above. Dawn was good at going down the very speedy side towards the river but could not get her brain and arm to communicate the extra oomph needed to come back the other way. Her opponent did! So, it was the end of Dawn’s run.
Tom Smith started well but didn’t get past the finishing line before his opponent on D green.
Middlesex hopes in the Two Bowl now rested on Ashley. A much tighter came ensued on C green and then Ashley was in the last 16 on D green. His opponent, Harry Goodwin, is the current Under 25 World Indoor Bowls Champion and has a few outdoor credits as well.
The game was neck and neck and both were coping with the D green variances pretty well. Towards the crucial 17th/18th ends, Harry moved head and another score on 20th end brought Ashley’s great run to a conclusion.
Middlesex are putting in a request not to play Two Bowl Singles next year!!
Ollie Shearing last the Junior Boy’s quarter final yesterday morning.
It means today, Friday (I checked my calendar), it is an extremely quiet day for Middlesex on the greens but we are looking forward to watching the final few rounds of the Two Bowl Singles and the Men’s Top Club Semi-final. A time to watch some tiptop bowls and pick up some tips!
A brilliant effort by the CP girls saw them into the quarter-final on Wednesday afternoon. They were holding their own until just over the halfway point when Hereford stepped up a gear and took the match 17-14. Our girls won the final end, so went out in a high!
in the Junior Boys Singles, Ollie Shesring is through to the quarter-finals Brilliant! He plays today as well
Today, the Two Bowl Single competitors take to the greens. First up is Hannah Hollis from Bush Hill Park v Cambs, next Dawn plays the winner from a Notts v Berkshire. (I am hoping to play considerably better than in the County Final in which drawing through a barn would have been difficult that day!)
Ashley Tanner from Ashford plays mid morning v Northants and Tom Bishop from Paddington takes on one of the Somerset entries at lunchtime.
if you scan down the entries in both comps, you could be name-dropping international players right, left, centre, top and bottom. No pressure on the Middlesex entrants.
With only 2 bowls, you have to find your lines on the green almost instantly otherwise the match is over in a flash. 21 ends max or you have to concede if there are not enough ends to beat the opponent with the amount of bowls left.
Well the four of us will head to the greens being confident on the outside , if not inside.
Alas, Cathy’s singles’ run came to an end yesterday morning in the quarter-finals 17-21 to youngster Rebecca Morley, who then went out in the semi-final.
However, Cathy, along with Tina, Ange & Ann have another chance as they won their Senior Fours match yesterday afternoon. They play Wiltshire this morning in the last 16.
Good luck girls!
At the other end, in the Junior Boys’ Singles, Robbie Carter Jnr lost but Ollie Shearing has made it through. Good luck to Ollie!
Congratulations to Sarah & Karen (super sub for Lucy) who beat Wendy & Derrick from Staines in the semi-final of the South Middlesex Aussie Pairs.
They will be playing the final v ?? on 17th September.
Great news!
Congratulations to Cathy who had two good wins including a 21-13 victory over the current National Champion of Champions 2023 winner!
This puts her into this morning’s quarterfinal v Rebecca Morley from Huntingdonshire.
it means our Senior Fours have managed to be given a delayed start to 1:30 pm. However, if Cathy continues her winning streak, it is like that Marie will step into the Senior Fours.
Alongside that terrific high yesterday afternoon, the Ashford boys who had reached the Fours semi-final were defeated by Lincolnshire and it was all down to the final end. Bitterly disappointing for the boys … and they were absolutely devastated. However in the next few days, they will realise what a fantastic tournament they have had culminating being in the final four teams in the country.
When you consider the combined playing years between three of the team is less than 12 years, it makes it even more amazing. A huge contrast to Val Osman from Gloucestershire who, at 88, became one of the oldest players to reach a National Singles Quarter-final. There is hope for some of us yet!
Also today, Robbie Carter Jr from Poplar and Ollie Shearing from North Greenwich will be representing Middlesex in the Junior Singles.
Sadly Tonia lost to her Devon opponent yesterday. The green seemed to be one-handed which made it difficult if your opponent got that side first!
Cathy nearly ran out of time in her Singles as it was neck and neck all the way with only 1 or 2 shots between them all the way through. At 18-19 Cathy was lying match down then she put her bowl through the head and picked up a 1. Cathy was holding match on the next end, when her Oxon opponent did the same thing. The match reached 20-20; the volunteers were packing up all the chairs from the surrounding greens getting ready to go home!
Final end and Cathy’s opponent ditched her bowl and Cathy’s was short. Cathy’s next bowls weren’t particularly close to the jack and her opponent just needed to draw shot. She’d done it before! Her bowl was wide and shortish so both girls went up to inspect the head. They looked at in from all angles and Cathy’s opponent offered her hand and admitted defeat.
This morning’s match is v Suzanne Green from Norfolk. Good luck!
Meanwhile , the Ashford Four of Luke Mann, Joe Lovett, Mark Smith & Matt Larman had a great start in the morning beating the Chatham, Kent, team by 3 shots. It wasn’t a comfortable win as the older Kent chaps were getting into the head and forcing Ashford to focus hard. Mark’s first bowl in the final end trailed the jack giving a brilliant result leaving Kent’s skip an almost impossible shot to remove Mark’s bowl whilst keeping his own on the green to get a 4. He missed. The boys progressed to the final 16 v Norfolk including Wayne Wilgress,
Wayne is no push over winning both indoor and outdoor championships. Only last week, he and his wife Bex win the National Mixed Pairs.
The match started with tight heads but tiny angles and millimetres in favour of Norfolk cruelly saw Ashford rapidly 3-17 down.
Suddenly for no obvious reason, the tide turned and Ashford picked up a 2, a 3, then a 5! 13-17. Game on! A couple more ends passed and the pressure was building when they reached 19-19 going into the final end. The head changed hands and, from where we we were sitting, it was impossible to know how many shots anyone was holding. Mark Smith definitely pushed out a Norfolk bowl for shot but was it only 1? An overhead camera would have been useful! The next Norfolk bowl moved Mark’s bowl when Matt played an absolute corker displacing the Norfolk bowl and the Ashford boys and supporters leapt into the air! Wayne nudged the bowl with his first bowl so it came down to the skip’s final bowls. Matt’s was short – a deliberate blocker? ( probably not at 4 feet). Wayne took aim. He looked as if he needed to kill the end to give his team a chance. His bowl glided through no change. Well you must have been able to hear the cheers all the way back in Twickenham. Ashford had defeated a very strong four and were now in the quarterfinals… with no accommodation booked for the night as they were expecting to go home and be back at work today! Hope they have kind bosses.
So, this morning they face four chaps from Northants who are as exuberant as Ashford and their supporters both on and off the green.
Duncan & I are playing in the Friends of English Bowling Two-Bowl Pairs also at 10:00. There should be live scoring on the Bowls England website and scores and commentary of Cathy and Ashford’s matches (not ours) on the Bowls Middlesex Facebook page.
Good luck to all of the players. It would be brilliant to see them go through another round or 2 or 3!
This morning, Mark, Luke, Joe & Matt from Ashford take to the green at 10:00 for the second round of the Men’s Fours against team from Chatham, Kent.
They had a good win yesterday and hope to repeat that today.
Also at 10:00, Tonia from Brentham starts her Singles challenge against an opponent from Crediton, Devon, and at 3:00 Cathy from Cambridge Park launches herself onto the green against a Banbury, Oxon player.
Tonia is scheduled to play on A2, so you may get a glimpse of her when the cameras streaming A1 get at an angle!
Good luck to all the Middlesex Players.
And good luck to the Lionesses in the World Cup Final. Remember you can go and watch with some others down at the club if you don’t want to watch on your own!
Hopefully we’ll have lots of good news to share on here tomorrow!
Sadly, Springfield couldn’t get a team together for tomorrow.
On a good note, the Club will be open and some people are going down to watch the World Cup football as it’s usually better watching with friends and shouting at the television togther.
The bar will be open as usual but not at 10:30!