Wednesday afternoon saw a glorious afternoon for bowls in the latest team friendly with Oatlands Park. They are renowned for being the best-dressed club around and they didn’t disappoint, upholding past traditions very well. The match itself ebbed and flowed and in the end it was our visitors who came out on top, winning on 2 of the 3 rinks and with an overall shot count of 48-38.

PS: As part of their centenary celebrations Oatlands Park have arranged a bowlathon on 21st June, bowling for 24hours!

Next up we have friendlies on both days of the weekend – players have been contacted but to remove any doubt they are recorded below. Please contact your acting captain Alan with any issues.

Saturday – Esher v Sunbury .. Alan; Anita; BobH; Cassie; David; Diane; Eileen; Maggie; Pat; Roger; Sandy; Simon

Sunday – Sunbury v Byfleet .. Alan; Brian; Chris; Jen; Jenny;  John; Julia; Keith; Linda; Lynda; Paul; Simon

The popular Friday Triples league is due to start Friday 7th – teams will be announced soon and the team captains will be in touch with those involved.

Some of our our bowlers have opened their campaigns in this season’s Middlesex county competitions. Last week the Men’s Fours (Nathan; BobH; Dennis; Alan) went down fighting 15-19 at West Ealing, but the Women’s Fours (Tracy; Nikki; Karen; Eileen) fared better winning through 19-10 against a team from Cambridge Park to progress to the quarter-finals this Sunday.

The draws for our internal club competitions will be made on Friday and published soon after.

After this week’s friendly with Oatlands Park we welcome in June with back-to-back friendlies on Saturday away at Esher and Sunday at home to Byfleet. We are a couple of players short for the Saturday game so please get in touch or sign-up on the sheet in the clubhouse if you’d like to be involved. All are welcome and encouraged to participate, especially if you’ve never played in a match before.

Wed 29th May 2:30pm – Sunbury v Oatlands Park

Sat 1st June 2:30pm – Esher v Sunbury   (two more players required)

Sun 2nd June 2:30pm – Sunbury v Byfleet

After the recent Open Days, tonight’s Club Night may see some new bowlers so please make them welcome and, hopefully, you can share some of the nuances of bowling. The green was due to be cut today but it’s more likely to be Wednesday now, so apologies if the grass is a little longer .. it’s still a little shorter than some of the grass verges in the area!

Some time back, Tarun very kindly setup a WhatsApp group for Sunbury Bowls members as another source of info/comms and for sharing some banter from time to time. The numbers have been slowly increasing and if you’d like to join here’s the link .. Sunbury Bowls 2024 Members

It came down to the last end of the day to decide the winners at Hersham on Sunday. Despite best efforts it wasn’t to be and despite wins on 3 of the 4 rinks we lost overall on total shots 62-66. Thanks to our hosts it was a most enjoyable afternoon of bowls with the sun shining brightly for the most part. It was especially nice to see our ex-captain Di on the green for the first time this season. Our next team match is another friendly on Wednesday afternoon at home to Oatlands Park.

Just a reminder that entries to the club competitions will close shortly so please get them in at the soonest. Also, after last week’s cancellation Club Night resumes on Tuesday evening .. please register by 5:45pm.

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!