Author: Dawn Slaughter

Featured

A Win for Cambridge Park

There was a lot of fun and banter across the green yesterday afternoon as our London Welsh visitors and CP enjoyed the first mixed friendly match of the year. The home team scored a good win overall.

Top rink (by one shot to Dave Pitt’s team) were Steve G, Tricia, Norman & Corale.

An excellent meal followed prepared and served by Karen and sous chefs Sarah & Julian. Thank you. Thanks also to Jane who was kept on the go behind the bar all afternoon and to Ann who put together a themed raffle.

it was Luigi’s last role as London Welsh President and he handed the chain of office over the new President, Carole Atkinson. The LW’s first lady to hold the position. Congratulations!

speeches were held and LW’s immediate Past President handed out a list of fines for not wearing a L W blazer, to wearing a French top underneath a LW one to wearing Bowls England shorts to his opposing team’s skip because he couldn’t think of anything to fine her for. It was hilarious and all the proceeds went to charity.
Yet again, Luigi completed the day’s events by giving us a song. (Unfortunately the video isn’t uploading but it’s on our FB page.)

Featured

“Bowls is a Drawing Game”

Well that was proved yesterday when both Jason Banks and Jamie Walker put on an amazing display of drawing bowls in the biggest singles match of 2023.

Bowl after bowl came to rest within inches of the jack. Absolutely wonderful.
Well done to Jamie and commiserations to Jason.
Should Jason have gone for another draw with his final bowl instead of the running shot? He only just missed with his second and third bowls. We shall never know the answer.
Now that the Championships are over, we can give our television and our eyes a bit of a rest and try to emanate those shots in our bowls games!

Featured

Big Matches Today!

First of all it’s a big match for us as we take on London Welsh this afternoon.  A hard working day for Karen & Sarah as they prepare and serve our post match meal.

Lastly, it’s the Open Singles Championship from Potters this afternoon.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be showing the Potters Champion of Champions match on FB or YouTube.  However BBC will have live coverage of the singles.  Both Jason B and Jamie W played really well yesterday and deserved to be in the Final.  You wouldn’t have put money on either of them a fortnight ago, so well done to both for beating the odds!

Featured

Wayne Willgress v Jamie Walker – What a Match!

I didn’t watch anything else last night bar the Wilgress v Walker match.  Wow, Wow, WOW!  What a match.! A Great quarter-final with amazing drawing shots and a selection of running, tactical bowls.  If you didn’t see it, watch on YouTube as it will be well worth it.  That’s the standard of bowls that we want to see and learn from.

Were the other quarters as fine?

Today’s semis are a mixture of the Open and Under 25s .  They should all be good matches.

In the National Ladies Under 25s (at Nottingham I think), Yaz Hassan from Egham takes on Rebecca Morley from St Neots in the quarter-final this afternoon.  We wish her the best of luck!

More locally, we’ve got an Aussie Pairs at the club this afternoon which should be a lot of fun.  It’ll certainly be a chance to put in some sparkling draw shots now that we’ve seen how to do it …. and consistently!

Featured

Friday Again!

Good to see the sun during the day and it felt a bit warmer than the last couple of days.  Maybe it’s psychological!

Roll on spring!

Some twists and turns in yesterday’s World Bowls matches weren’t there?  Katherine Rednall goig down heavily in the first set, although neither she nor Cerianne had their best games.  Katherine upped the anti in the second set but the highlight (I thought) was the tie-break!  27 years old and winner of the Ladies Match Play 5 times.  WOW. Katherine is definitley in the right sport for her.

Darren Burnett was struggling against Paul Foster.  With the running bowls coming as early as the 5th end in the first set, it just looked like he couldn’t find the drawing weight so resorted to other shots, a bit liek Cerianne.

No one looked particularly comfortable out there.  Maybe they’re tired?  Anyway, four big quarter-finals to go on today.  Let’s hope the ties live up to the audience’s expectations!

I

 

Featured

Did Dave P Learn to Play Bowls in Australia?

Dave Pitt has the longest backswing I’ve ever seen on the bowls green, which doesn’t seem to change whether indoors or outdoors.

It was commented that the Australian coaches are now teaching players to use a proper backswing as part of their delivery even on faster rinks.  If the bowls continue running beyond the jack, you can to reduce the amount of backswing to bring the weight down.  On a golfing holiday about 35 years ago, we were told that when you were chipping the ball out of the bunker, the most important part of the swing was the follow through.

Sarah and Scott – out latest qualified coaches – what is the new idea on delivery?  Do you focus on one more than the other?

For us bowlers, then, do you find adjusting your backswing or your follow through to improve the weight (length) of your bowls?  I was told if the bowls were landing short, then take a bigger step forward.  What’s your best tip?  Whatever works for you might be helpful to someone else.

—-

I didn’t see a lot of the first Ladies Match Play semi-final but Katherine Rednall looked well in control after the first set 12-4.  Nicole lost the second set 1-9 but hopefully it was better than the scoreline suggests.

Last night’s second semi between Cerianne and Lisa Featherby didn’t start off particularly well with neither player playing to the form of their quarter-final matches.  (You see, it happens to them and they have off days too, just like we do!)  The commentary was somewhat lacklustre and something along the lines of “it’s a shame there isn’t any music” was suggested.  Then Cerianne caused the whole arena to burst out laughing as she delivered a wrong bias!  She laughed about it too but did go on to win the first set 8-6.  Lisa gained a bit more form in the second.  Hopefully Cerianne will be back on her Mixed Pairs A game when she faces Katherine Rednall in the final at 1:00 pm this afternoon.

Last year’s Open winner, Les Gillett went out in straight sets to Jason Banks (brother of Carla Banks who has appeared in previous World Bowls Championships).  He had a sparkling 7th end in the second set picking up 4 shots.  That doesn’t often happen at this level of play.  It looked a good match overall.

In the other men’s tie, Stuart Anderson, who had a magnificent game in the Mixed Pairs Final on Tuesday, wasn’t exactly rubbish yesterday but didn’t make it over the line against last year’s semi-finalist Wayne Wilgress.  Wayne is a very exuberant bowler after playing a great shot and his supporters are just as loud!  The tie-break was very exciting indeed. It would have been a great final but there are still more rounds to go!

 

 

Featured

Sunday 22nd January – Mixed Friendly v London Welsh

We’re looking forward to playing against London Welsh Chairman, Carole Atkinson, and her band of merry men and women.

Laurence, Scott, Kevin K & Andy H

Ange, Brenda, George & Dave P

Tricia, Corale, Norman & Steve G

Tina, Mike, Lucy & Dawn

Match fee £10 in cash, please, so we can take out the meal fee to reimburse Karen & Sarah .

Will Luigi be serenading us after the match?  We hope so!

Thanks

Featured

Saturday 21st January – Aussie Pairs

Thanks to everyone who signed up.  I think we’ll be doing 3 rounds of 5 ends starting at 2.00 pm

First round:

Dawn & Gym v Cliff & Peter J

Bob & Frances v Dan & Jacqui

Pauline R & Dave P v Bill R & Tony O’B

Shaf & Karen v Peter T & Ann H

With each player changing ends twice per end, get your step counters on and we should all be doing more than 3,000 steps!

For those not playing and would like some real flesh bowls’ entertainment, you’re very welcome to come down.