The deadline for entry into the Club Competitions is 31st May so please do let us have any final entries for the Men’s, Women’s or Mixed competitions. The exceptions are the three remaining day-long competitions (two in June; one in July) , where entries are accepted up to the week before. Entry forms are available in the clubhouse and online here .. Competitions Form 2024

Stanwell proved to be a step too far at Sunday’s SML match and it wasn’t to be three-out-of-three. Although to Sunbury’s credit, there was a win on one of the three rinks and an overall shot count of 75-69. Unfortunately this transferred as a 8-2 points loss. It does mean we have a 50% record in the league before the next match on 9th June. Before that is a string of five team friendlies so please check the team sign-up sheets in the clubhouse.

The ever popular Friday Morning Triples are almost upon us .. Eileen is finalising the teams for the upcoming league so watch this space.

Well, I’m not sure anyone saw that coming .. Sunbury coming out top in both of the weekend’s SML team matches!

First up were league newcomers Strawberry Hill and after a hot and muggy afternoon of bowls, Sunbury recorded convincing wins on 3 of the 4 rinks and an overall shot count of 87-53 for an 8-2 points win. Sunday was the turn of Staines, one of last season’s top three teams. Sunbury took early leads on two rinks and pushed on for healthy wins. The closest contest of the afternoon involved new club captain Dennis and his team, who just fell short on the penultimate end. We may ban playing on rink 5 as, like on Saturday, it proved to be tricky and our losing rink. It didn’t detract from an overall 64-55 shot count in Sunbury’s favour and a 6-4 points win. The SML matches continue next weekend with a visit to Stanwell on Sunday .. fingers crossed for an unprecedented hat-trick of wins.

Before that we have the first of our Open Days on Saturday 11am-3pm. Thanks to John, our unofficial advertising executive, who’s been working hard promoting the days. As ever, we won’t know how many folk will turn up but if you could spare an hour or two please do head down to the club to welcome any guests and potential members.

The weather is forecast to cool down a bit during the week but should, hopefully, be okay for Club Night on Tuesday evening.

This week’s mid-week friendly with Walton was played in hot and sunny conditions with bowls the winner, a nice change from the last couple of encounters when rain came out on top! Sunbury won on one rink and drew on another for a narrow 67-62 loss on shots. Thanks in particular to two of our most senior players, Terry and Charlie, for bearing up to the hot conditions.

It was nice to be back in the game after a bit of a drubbing on Sunday in our SML match at Hampton. There we drew on one rink but came out second on the others for an overall 9-1 points loss. The SML fixtures continue this weekend with home matches on both days at 2:30pm. Cool towels may be in order for players and spectators alike!

We enjoyed some traditional May weather for the first of our club competitions on Saturday .. the Mixed 2-woods Pairs. 11 pairs were split over 3 groups with the group winners and best runner-up competing in semi-finals. The green received a last-minute cut before play commenced and it made for some good bowling and very close games. One group in particular ended with 3 pairs on 2 wins each and only separated by one shot. Congratulations go to JenB & John and TonyH & Tracy who won through to play in finals weekend. Many thanks to Dennis for pulling out the stops with cutting the green and to Nikki for sorting refreshments. We have two day-long competitions scheduled for June so get your entries in for those and all the others .. the deadline will be declared soon.

   

 

Short mats were the order of the day but the first team match of the season went ahead as planned on Sunday afternoon. The decision to play was made despite a morning of rain and threatening clouds but by the end of play even the sun made an appearance. The visitors, Ember, won on three rinks, although one of those was decided on the final end, so there’s plenty of encouragement for the hosts.

Next weekend sees the Mixed 2-woods Pairs competition. The cutoff for entries is Tuesday evening so please get in touch if you’d like to enter. Here’s the current list .. Alison, Anita, Barry, Chris, David, Eileen, JenB, John, Karen, LindaB, Maggie, Nathan, Neil, Pat, Sandy, Simon, Tarun, TonyH, Tracy, Vivien.

Club Night kicked off this week with 20 keen souls bearing up well to the cool conditions .. top marks to Colin and Simon in their shorts! The green was remarkably dry and firm so no need for cloths (or buckets!) .. all that was needed was some warmth! Next week is forecast to be a little better.

We have a new provider for booking rinks. The old one (Skedda) worked well but they wanted to charge us nearly $500 for continued use. Needless to say we looked into others and have plumped for SuperSaaS .. a cost-free provider, for now at least! When you first make a booking you will have to sign up with email, password and name. If you require help navigating your way round it please get in touch and, as before, I’m happy to enter bookings for anyone preferring not to use it .. just drop me a line. You don’t have to book ahead of playing but just be aware of weekly grass cutting on Friday 5pm and at ad-hoc times.

All the sign-up sheets for upcoming team matches are on the noticeboards in the clubhouse so please do take a look and enter your name if you’d like to play. The captain will typically select a team a week before so keep checking back and tick off your name if possible to indicate you’re okay. The opening match of the season is a friendly on Sunday 28th at 2:30pm. If playing please try and arrive 30mins beforehand to help with proceedings.

The first of our club competitions takes place on Saturday 4th May .. Mixed 2-woods Pairs. If you’ve never entered one before this is a good one to try. You don’t need a partner to enter as the pairings will be drawn on the day and each pairing will play at least a couple of short games. You’ll need to be available from around 10:30am-3:30pm with a break for lunch.

Current playlist: Alison, Anita, Chris, Eileen, JenB, John, Karen, Maggie, Nathan, Neil, Pat, Roger, Sandy, Simon, TonyH.

If your name is missing, or shouldn’t be there, or you’d like to enter please get in touch.

Our bowls season kicks off proper with the first Club Night of the season this Tuesday 23rd. Please check-in from 5:45pm with bowls at the ready for a prompt start at 6pm. We’ll do our best to make it triples but, as always, it’s subject to a magic number.

Next weekend we have our first team match  – a friendly with Ember on Sunday 28th. The weekend after we’ll be in the driest month of the year (if not UK, somewhere in the world!). We have our first club competition in the shape of Mixed 2-woods Pairs on Saturday 4th, followed by our first South Middlesex League (SML) team match at Hampton on Sunday 5th.

Before all that we welcome the addition of another octogenarian to the bowls club, this time it’s our Treasurer .. many happy returns Barry, have a great day!

There was a new helper at the club today, well Surplus to Supper!

Some good news with the green .. Dennis has recently done an inspection and it’s firming up nicely and it should be okay for opening on Saturday afternoon!

Some less good news is about the car park entrance/exit from Dave Smith .. please be careful coming in as you might meet someone going out! Please take registration numbers of culprits if possible or politely talk to them asking why they are at the club. Please forward any info onto Dave. More signage is on order,

Unfortunately the weather has won and the opening of the green is postponed to Saturday 20th .. an inspection by the Greenkeeping team today found the the green too soft to play on. The first Club Night will therefore follow on Tuesday 23rd.

We’ve also received word that the whole club site will be closed off on Thursday 18th between 09:30-12:15 so no one will have access.

The greenkeeping team would like to thank everyone for their efforts in clearing the grounds over the weekend. Together with the hedges being cut a few months back, the grounds are in  pretty good shape going into the season. Opening day is planned for this Saturday 13th, weather permitting .. there’ll be a crucial inspection on Thursday followed by, hopefully, another cut on Friday!

The early team fixtures are on the noticeboard in the club house so please do sign-up for them .. all are welcome.