I didn’t catch the name of the girl commentating on last night’s singles match between Mervyn King and Thinus Oelofse but, in order for her to get some practice on the portable rink, she had to book it for 02:00-04:00 am this morning!  WOW!  That’s the pressure for getting onto that rink.  No chance of booking the 18:00-19:00 slot!

Great match between Greg & Nick and Jason & Ken in the Open Pairs Semi-FInal.  ‘Our’ boys were so unlucky in the first set.  Rub of the green affects players at all levels and is not exclusive to us club bowlers.  Having said that, the Hong Kong duo played brilliantly, particularly in the opening set but Greg & Nick didn’t get phased and proved what a great mindset they have and focussed on putting the pressure on in the second set.  Did you spot that they both Hong Kong chaps seem to stand straight on the mat rather than facing towards the side they are bowling?  They were also much slower in play.  Nick has said before that he always knows what shot he is going to play when he steps on the mat.  No dithering.  Just gets on and delivers.

The commentator (Jason Parkinson?) said that about 80% of the side winning the toss for the tie break will give the mat away in order that they have last bowl.  The Hong Kong boys kept the mat and Greg gave it away in the second end.  What would you do?

The Open Pairs Final between Nick & Greg and Jason Greenslade & Michael Stepney will be the first match to show live on BBC on Monday 16th starting at 13:00.  it’ll be a change of commentators though.  Personally, I like the ones that are commentating this week.

On to today.  Nick is back on the rink playing singles v Jonathan Ross – not the presenter one!  David Bolt, playing Stewart Anderson, is the producer of the Wrong Bias Podcast .  Check it out on wrongbias.com

It’ll seem like Jack and the Giant playing in the last match of the day as Wayne Wilgress plays Katherine Rednall.  I believe Katherine is the only girl to qualify for the Open Singles and she’ll be back in the Ladies Singles later in the week.  Anyway, tonight it’ll be a great match between two of the best bowlers in the country and world and definitley worth a watch!

Sit back and enjoy!

Good to see the World Bowls Open Singles has now got off the ground and they’re top and tailing the Open Pairs semi-finals in today’s schedule.

A lot of us have met and chatted to Greg Harlow at Potters.  He also made a visit to the ABC Clinic a couple of years ago and witnessed Brian N doing a wrong bias.  Well, if you’re going to do one, you might as well do it in front of the World No.1 as Greg was at that time and get presented with the Wrong Bias Club certificate!

 

Greg’s partner, Nick Brett, has also played at Cambridge Park a few times in the Leonard Denny Memorial Trophy semi’s and finals, but he is probably best remembered for that absolutely fantastic shot at the World Bowls Championships in 2021.  This link might work, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFSD7nw453g  otherwise look up ‘Nick Brett that shot’ on your web browser and it should pop up at the top of the search.

 

Mixed bag of results as we did better when we were playing other teams from Cambridge Park!  Tina, Teresa & Tricia had a very close triples against Sarah, Lucy & Ann on Friday afternoon.  They now await the winners of Ann H, Di & Dawn who are playing another team from Egham on Saturday 14th.

Di & Ann B had another close match on Sunday morning when they managed to beat Sarah & Lucy in the National Pairs by 5 shots.  They now face Kylie & Doreen at Egham in the next round.

Kevin K, Laurence & Gym went down to Steve G, Norman & Ian by 5 shots in the National Men’s Triples on Saturday morning.  They now play John Donaghue & co from Hounslow.

Dawn lost 18-21 to Kylie in the National Singles.

Dave P, Norman, Ian D & Steve G had a really, really close match v Camberley in the London & Southern Counties Fours with it being neckand neck the whole way, with Camberley being ahead after 17 ends by just one shot 9-7.  It squared up to 10-10 but Camberley had a ‘purple’ 21st end which our boys couldn’t match losing by 4.  Brilliant effort though.

Sarah, Ann B & Karen & Dawn were outbowled by Kerry, Wolfie, Lou & Amanda D at Egham in the Ladies Fours on Sunday night.  We were just not on our A or B game.  The Egham four, particularly Lou and Amanda played very well, putting all four of us under pressure on almost every end.   

Sometimes, if you win a few ends and put the jack up yourself, it’s easier to find a rhythmn but it wasn’t to be.  Hats off to Karen who played a sparkler of a draw, doubling our score after 11 ends!  We threw the towel in when there was not a cat in hell’s chance of picking up at least a 3 on the final 6 ends!

In Club Comps, Barry & Teresa had a good win v Steve P & Stella K and Kevin K & Gym had a solid win v Kevin L & Gordon, although there was definitely a good scrabble back into the game by the latter two.

More fun and games this week with Nationals and club comps.  The Middlesex Comp Draws should be out very soon, so we can have a go at those!

There were some good games in the World Bowls.  Did you manage to watch any of them?

Today’s schedule below:

 

For those heading clubwards, there are three matches this morning:

Ann B & Di are playing a National Pairs v Sarah & Lucy – very tight after 16 ends; Barry & Teresa are playing  club pairs v Steve P & Stella and are enjoying a comfortable lead at present; and Steve, Norman, Dave & Ian have the next round of the London & Southerm Counties Single Rink v Camberley 8-10 after 17 ends. That is a VERY tight game. It’s an 21 end match.

On the World Bowls front, there’s another good line up of matches to watch live or on playback today.

The World Bowls Tour started yesterday with some Open Pairs and continues today.

If you have a smart tv or smart phone or internet access to YouTube of Facebook, you can watch live or on playback on YouTube.

Go to YouTube and type in World Bowls 2023.  There are matches on during the day and quite often one in the evening.

The schedule is here  https://www.pottersholidays.com/world-bowls/schedule/

There should be a good match tonight with Wayne Wilgress & Les Gillett taking on Chris Carswell (not our own Chris Caswell!) & John Carswell from Scotland.

They trialled 3 bowl pairs for the last 2 years, but are back to 2 bowl pairs now.  Boy, does that put particular pressure on the lead to be on fire from the off!

With the weather today being somewhat inclement, it looks like a good day to watch some experts on the green.  Enjoy!

I’m not sure about January blues but there’s definitely a writer’s block! Hey ho  it won’t last.

There are roll ups today and tomorrow at 10:00 and an afternoon drive on Saturday at 2:00. Now that it’s warmed up a bit, it’s not such a drag to leave the house. The Club is warm too!

Leagues start again next week and the latest results will be put up at the club in the next few days.

The World Championships start tomorrow with some Pairs matches. Live streaming will be via Facebook. Nadine will no doubt be watching from across the ponds.

Kevin’s boys are playing their National Triple at the Club on Saturday morning, so why not pop along and give them some support.  I do believe they’re playing a team from Egham

Anyone found some good January bargains? How are the latest new year resolutions going? Are you all waiting to finish the Christmas chocolates before the dieting starts?!

Hope you all had a good Christmas and managed to meet up with family and friends and shared some fun times together.

With Boxing Day over, today is another Bank Holiday.  Great for those getting an extra day off work, but not so good if you’ve spent Christmas on your own and facing another long lonely day ahead.

The sun is rising nicely and it doesn’t feel too cold out there at the moment (going up to 9C later) so a short walk might be an option or dig your Freedom Pass out and go for a long bus ride – don’t try the trains, they still seem to be all over the place.  Harlequins are playing at home, so avoid the A316 area.

If you’d rather settle down on the sofa, Hello Dolly! is on BBC2 this afternoon at 1:30 followed by Funny Girl, then Coppelia after which there’s the usual Tuesday evening quiz programmes – Only Connect (If I get one right, that is beyond belief) and University Challenge.  The Christmas Special of One Foot in the Grave is on at 9:00 pm on BBC4.  I wonder if that is as funny now as it was when it was first shown in 1990?  I mean, we’re all 32 years older now ……

ITV4 have Live Racing from Kempton Park at 13:30 – maybe some of you are heading off there? – followed by less typical Christmassy films of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Mummy and Die Hard.

Hopefully Jean and Norman will have Amazon Prime as both the Chelsea v Bournemouth and Manchester United v Nottingham Forest matches are on there at 5:30 and 8:00 pm respectively.

If you have Sky Sports, you’re spoiled with everything from Darts to Football to Rugby, Cricket, Golf, NFL, Australian and English football.

If you’re worried about getting square eyes, the radio channels are almost back to normal schedules.  Darts and rugby are being covered by Talksport with BBC5 Sports Extra focussing solely on cricket.  The Goon show pops up on Radio 4 Extra at 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm then at 8:00 pm there is TED Radio Hour relating to age.  The RT write up includes “Of course there are challenges – some part of your body is going to fall apart!  But can age be seen as an asset, rather than a liability?  The advice from anti-ageist activists is to stop using negative language about ourselves, and being coy about revealing our age.  “Walk faster, find your mission – and squeeze all the juice out of retirement.”.  After listening to this, you’ll feel like a spring chicken again.

Tomorrow, you’ll be able to get back to playing bowls and meeting up with the others for exercise and a beer.  That is another great option for feeling like a spring chicken again!

Whatever is on your schedule for today, enjoy it to the full.