Ten hardy souls wrapped up the playing season at Tuesday’s Club Night, braving the murky conditions .. a bucket of water was definitely in order to help wash the bowls after each roll!

 

On Monday we finished our campaign in the South Middlesex League with a rearranged match at Teddington. The hosts were keen to avoid bottom place and duly inflicted an 8-2 defeat on Sunbury. Unusually we had draws on two of the rinks.

Looking back on the season, finishing 5th is okay but having registered a win against both teams above us there’s a feeling that we could have gone higher. A particularly bad weekend where we failed to get a single point against the top two teams undoubtedly knocked us off course and hit our confidence. With a larger pool of players next season aiming for a top 3 finish may not be unrealistic.

The green gets put to bed over the coming weekend 1st-2nd Oct, and we kick off the monthly winter socials on Tues 4th Oct.

The work on preparing the green for winter is set for the weekend of Sat 1st & Sun 2nd Oct – please do come and lend a hand if you’re able to.

The aim is to put the green to bed in the best possible condition in order to hopefully reap the rewards in the spring. Top dressing, fertiliser and other materials are arriving and a scarifier is on order. Dennis and the greenkeeping team plus helpers will be concentrating on the green but any lighter work around the grounds and clubhouse will be well received too.

After the last SML match at Teddington on Mon 26th and Club Night on Tues 27th we have the first of our monthly winter socials on Tues 4th Oct 7:30pm in the main hall. It’s been decided to give the women another chance in a Men v Women skittles competition (the official score from Men v Women bowls match on Sat 17th was 77-59)! All are welcome even if you don’t fancy knocking over some skittles. A quiz, card games and xmas games are all on the agenda for subsequent socials so please try and keep the first Tuesday of each month free.

Looking further ahead to November we have another winter social on Tues 1st 7:30pm closely followed by our AGM on Tues 8th 7:30pm. Further information will be forwarded on this but please do try and attend to hear about what’s happening and what you’d like to see happen around the club.

The Presentation Awards Dinner is set for Fri 18th 6:30pm for 7pm start at Fulwell Golf Club. Please add your name to the sheet in the clubhouse if you’d like to come – all are welcome. Payment details are on the sheet (repeated below) together with a menu selection.

• payments of £29.50pp to the Sunbury Bowls Club account (a/c 91701800; sort 40-44-39) or let Barry have a cheque or cash.

The men enjoyed a hearty 3-1 win in Saturday’s annual Men v Women match.

After a few years of female domination the men have turned things around and will be looking for a hat-trick of wins in 2023. The weather played its part with lots of sunshine and the day was rounded off with a most enjoyable bbq afterwards courtesy of Nikki & Dennis and others.

The following day we played our last team friendly of the season with a visit to Chertsey, winning on one of the three rinks. Let’s hope the mild late-summer weather continues as we wrap up the playing season with an SML match at Teddington on Monday 26th and Club Night on Tuesday 27th.

Just a reminder that we have our first winter social on Tuesday 4th October at 7:30pm in the main hall.

Here’s a couple of other promotions ..

Sat 24th & Sun 25th – Egham Indoor
Bowls club are hosting open days .. please do mention Sunbury Bowls if you sign-up!

 

 

 

After a couple of weeks of bad luck with the weather we’re hoping for a better last two weeks of the season.

Club Night will continue to run until the 27th, but at an earlier sign-up time of 5:15pm. We appreciate this may be too early for some – apologies, but we need to beat the failing light.

This weekend we have the much anticipated Men v Women match followed by family bbq. Although cooler it’s forecast to be a nice sunny day and, hopefully, very little chance of cancellation! The following day on Sunday we travel to Chertsey for our last team friendly. Again the weather is set fair.

The last remaining South Middlesex League match against Teddington has been rescheduled for Monday 26th 2:30pm. Please put your names on the new sheets in the clubhouse if you’d like to play.

Looking not too far ahead to October, we’ll let you have more details on the green closure work on Saturday 1st and/or Sunday 2nd and also our first winter social evening on Tuesday 4th 7:30pm – it may be skittles but we will keep you posted.

It’s almost time for the annual Men v Women contest so please add your name to the list in the clubhouse if you haven’t already done so and would like to take part. Our Match Captain Diane and Club President Tom will be arranging the teams and hopefully everyone who signs up will play.

Also please indicate whether you’ll be stopping for the BBQ afterwards from around 5:30pm. Everyone is welcome – players, members, spectators, family & friends. We just need to know numbers by Wednesday to sort out catering. Further details from Nikki – tel. 07753 621039; email – d-morris2@sky.com.

Men v Women 2021

Unfortunately this week’s weather put a dampener on Tuesday’s Club Night and Thursday’s South Middlesex League game at Teddington. It reinforces how lucky we were with the competition finals at the weekend! A new date is being sought for the Teddington game and Club Night will roll on next week.

There is now a sign-up sheet in the clubhouse for our annual Presentation Dinner on 18th November. If you’d like to attend please add your name and menu choices.

Work has eventually started on the Disabled Toilets in the main bar area. We’ll endeavour to let you know when they’re finished.

Bar staff are wanted for the club. Please email the bar manager Chloe at sunburysports@outlook.com for further details.

 

The sun shone brightly on the last two matches of Finals Weekend to crown first-time winners in the Men’s and Women’s Championships. A delayed start due to damp conditions on both mornings was a small price to pay as we were blessed with fine weather over the weekend when all around suffered downpours.

In an enthralling encounter in the Men’s final, Bob Harvey came out on top against 3-times champion Dennis Morris. He avenged Saturday’s defeat in the Presidents Cup and his 2020 final loss and it made for a happy Harvey household as a little earlier, Anita got the better of last year’s defending champion Eileen Leatherby in the Women’s final.

Congratulations to all the winners (and finalists) but especially to those winning trophies for the first time. Alison Nabil in the Presidents Plate and Pat (Trish) Fletcher in the tightest of games over the weekend – a nervy 12-11 win in the Women’s Pairs.

Colin Edwards blazed the way for this season’s new bowlers with victory in the Junior Championship, the winners of which invariably figure in the following season’s finals. Another relative newcomer Tarun Singh may have lost both his finals but takes top marks for playing all his competition games despite taking an extended break during the season.

Bindley Smith may have missed out on making this season’s finals but takes 10/10 for effort with two of her competition matches lasting 29 ends – the longest of the season. Mind you, the weekend’s Mens Pairs final takes the crown for the longest match partly due to them opting for a lunch break half way through!

Thanks to the green keepers for all their hard work in preparing the green and grounds and many thanks to all who helped with the catering, especially Nikki and Karen for getting in the supplies and preparing refreshments. The markers did their bit too – Gary oozed positivity in marking his two games!

Lastly, thanks to spectators as it makes the Finals weekend all the more rewarding.

All the photos from the day are available here .. Finals 2022

Details of past finals and leagues are available on the Competitions pages.

Due to concerns over the green we have decided to delay proceedings on Sunday – the Mens Pairs will start sometime from 10:30am. The other matches will hopefully proceed as scheduled.

We had a delayed start to the Finals on Saturday due to a damp green but were subsequently treated to some fine matches. Despite swishing multiple times we had to rely on the sun to dry the green on Saturday before play could commence at 11am. Whilst parts of Ashford Hospital suffered floods we very lucky to miss the thunderstorms forecast for 1pm.

Here are the results thus far – a full report will be available after Sunday.

 

The last two semi-finals were completed today just in time for the finals this weekend. One in particular was a long one .. another 29 ends for Bindley , this time against Eileen in the Women’s Handicap.

The green was subsequently double-cut and the grounds prepared by the greenkeepers and helpers.

Just a reminder that sausage rolls, crisps, biscuits and cakes together with teas/coffees and squashes will be available during the day.

The schedule below is complete but obviously everything may not quite go to plan so please bear with. Please see some notes below particularly for competitors and markers.

Notes for competitors & markers

Please familiarise yourself with the schedule – it contains all the information required,  including rink number, marker (where required) and which player(s) are red & blue. This will all be available on the whiteboard by the side of the rink.

To help speed things along and identify the bowls for markers and spectators please attach the red or blue stickers to your bowls before the game(s). The player(s) with blue stickers will be recorded as top of the scoreboard and will be the challenger and will be asked to call heads/tails on the coin toss to decide who has the mat on the first end.

Two trial ends are expected to take take place before the match itself, unless otherwise specified.

For those players competing for the first time (and a reminder to others) feel free to ask your marker for information about the positions of the bowls in the head. Typically this may be  “who’s holding shot?”. Once at the head agree the score with your opponent or ask the marker to measure to confirm/decide.

The finals of this year’s Club Competitions are almost here and below is the schedule for the weekend – all timings are approximate.

The dress code for competitors is whites with club shirts preferred but not essential. After each match, or soon after, they’ll be a presentation of the trophy.

Teas/coffees/water/squash and some snacks will be available throughout the two days at the chalet.

Please get in touch with any issues/etc.. Good luck to all competitors!