We enjoyed a midweek friendly at the rather quaint Oatlands Park, losing 2-1 on rinks but winning overall on shots, and, crucially, beating most of the rain! It’s nice to see that Oatlands continue with the old traditions of men wearing ironed shirts and ties and with a tea break half way though the match! Our next team match, the SML game against Ashford on Saturday, has been postponed as most of their women are unavailable. So next up is a friendly at Strawberry Hill on Sunday, followed by another at Walton on Wednesday. Many more games are coming up so please do consider signing up for them on the sheets in the clubhouse.
After last week’s bumper turnout at Club Night, this week broke records again with 38 players! Folk like playing triples but with these numbers it’s inevitable some games will be played as fours so please bear with us.
On the county scene, Anita continues to put Sunbury on the map beating a friend and ex-Sunbury player at Cambridge Park in her Women’s Champion of Champions game and qualifying for the quarter-finals to be played this Sunday. Elsewhere we wish Karen & Eileen and Tracy & Jen all the best in the Middlesex Women’s 2-woods Pairs at Bishop Duppas on Saturday. Jen is a new bowler to Sunbury but not new to bowls, and hopefully not to be confused with our other rather good Jen, or Jenny, who’s progressing well as a brand new bowler! On the Mens side (one half anyway!) Alan & Karen and Bob & Anita play their next rounds in the Middlesex Mixed Pairs this coming week against opposition from Ashford and Hampton.
In our Club Competitions the line up for the semi-finals for the Women’s Handicap is now complete. Others are progressing well with only a couple of games behind schedule. Thanks again for making my life pretty easy and getting games played .. the enthusiasm easily matches that for Club Night! Lastly, some advance notice of the last of our day-long club competitions – the Presidents Plate on Sat 12th August. This is played as a series of short games played in triples, so everyone is involved for the best part of the day with two teams progressing to Finals weekend. I’ll be asking folk to check their entry or sign-up in the week before but do get in touch with any issues.
Saturday’s SML match against Staines was a victim of the bad weather which hit most of the country. Some of their players enjoyed the catering before venturing home in a break in the rain! A new date will be arranged. We had better fortune on Sunday at Fordbridge Park, at least with the weather if not the bowls .. we lost 10-0!
This weekend sees a double-header of SML team matches .. Saturday at home to Staines and away to Fordbridge Park on Sunday. Both opponents will be looking to cement their push for top honours, so let’s hope Sunbury can pick up a surprise or two! We enjoyed a gentle friendly with Ember last weekend, played as 3 triples in the end. We may have lost on them all but it was the heaviest green we’ve faced this year, almost like playing in April!
We suffered a duo of defeats this week in the South Middlesex League (SML). We snatched a draw on one rink against Bishop Duppas on Sunday for a 9-1 defeat then went slightly better against Hampton on Thursday with a one-shot win on one rink for an 8-2 defeat. Thanks are due to Stanwell for keeping us off the bottom of the table! The next of our team matches is a friendly at Ember on Sunday 16th with 16 players required .. please contact captain Di or reply here if you’d like to play.
The second half of the Friday Morning League commenced this week and there were some surprising results. There was a resounding win for Nikki’s team against Alison’s team giving them their first win of the season; Karen’s team enjoyed a single shot win over Alan’s unbeaten team; Diane’s team kept in the hunt towards the top of the table with a narrow 3-shot win against Eileen’s team. This leaves the table a little more bunched, especially with Karen’s and Nikki’s team having a game in hand on the others.
At Saturday’s President Cup we had a potential new member, identifying as a duck! He, or she, stuck around for quite a while admiring the play before waddling off. The third of our day-long club competitions had it’s fair share of exciting matches, especially the quarter-finals and it was subsequently decided that the semi-finals would be contested on a future date .. Dennis v Eileen and Alan v Tracy. Thanks to all the helpers for organising the rinks, refreshments, etc. and particularly the markers who did a grand job with the more complex 4-3-2-1 scoring and fast-moving scoreboards! Full details .. 
There were some close games in this week’s Club Night with one decided by a single shot. With 8 sessions played there are a handful of players within a few points of each other at the top of the rankings .. there’s a long way to go before anyone can get their hands on the trophy for best man and best woman though! Club Night continues on Tues 4th at 6pm (please checkin at 5:45pm or let someone know if running late).
I was asked recently about the placement of the mat so I thought I’d share this handy guide. Remember you can place the mat anywhere up to the first 25m mark, something you could try to change it up a bit. 
It was a happy Father’s Day for our Treasurer Barry on Sunday. He qualified for Finals weekend with a consummate performance in the latest of our day-long club competitions squeezing past current Men’s champion Bob in his semi-final. The other semi-final saw reigning champion Anita beat Liam. Both matches were close affairs and decided on their final ends, and made for a tense watch by the gallery. Thanks to all the helpers on the day and everyone for enabling a prompt start .. we dodged the rain yet again! Full results .. 
Karen & Eileen, our Women’s Pairs team, have qualified for the county quarter and semi-finals at Bush Hill Park in July! They won their latest round at sunny Ashford today (Thursday 15th). They’ve made a habit of leading from the start and repeated it again today against an experienced team, winning 17-11.