Sunbury followed up last year’s success at the Bluewood Cup by retaining the trophy on Saturday. After a series of 7-end games played across Men’s, Women’s & Mixed Pairs as well as two Mixed Triples, Sunbury ended the day on 26pts, with Hampton on 20pts and hosts Fordbridge Park on 14pts. Every team contributed magnificently with at least 2 wins, with last year’s top team of Karen & Eileen winning all their four games .. yet again! Thanks to all the supporters and reserve players and the hosts for a superb day.

The last round of Friday Triples saw wins for teams managed by Alison, Eileen and Nikki. This confirms the runners-up spot for Alison’s team who came strong again in the end after setting the pace early on. Eileen and Karen share 3rd spot with AlanP ahead of last year’s winning captain Diane. The season played out well with only one wet Friday this time .. during Wimbledon! Congratulations again to the winning team of Cassie, John, TonyH, Tracy, Viv and captain Nikki, and to our chief organiser, Eileen.

1st – Nikki (16 pts)

2nd – Alison (12)

3rd – Eileen (10); Karen (10)

5th – AlanP (8)

6th – Diane (4)

In the Club Competitions this week it’s congratulations to Sandy as another first-time finalist, qualifying in the Women’s Pairs with Eileen. She joins Andrea and Viv in the finals at the end of the month with chances for a couple more first-timers to join them. Competitions 2024

Last weekend’s team friendly with Chertsey saw a refreshing change with the opposition fielding two youngsters, 11 and 13 yrs old. By all accounts they contributed well to their team winning on two rinks to Sunbury’s one.

Who thought outdoor bowls was a night-time activity .. the midweek SML match with Ashford had a very murky finish, in the dark on a couple of rinks! Sunbury actually completed the double over Ashford although only just, sharing the rinks but winning by 3 shots overall for a 6-4 win.

Friday Triples concludes this week and then Sunbury defends the Bluewood Cup on Saturday at Fordbridge Park, no doubt against a very hungry Hampton team.

The SSA is looking for more bar staff. Anyone 18yrs+ will be considered with some weekend work involved and training provided. Please contact Emily on barmanager@sunburysports.org or Dave Smith on dave54.smith@yahoo.com.

Congratulations to Anita on becoming Middlesex Women’s Unbadged Singles champion. Her final was played at Cambridge Park on Saturday and unlike in her previous rounds it didn’t go down to the wire, winning 21-16. It caps off a great week for Anita fresh on the heels of her son’s wedding.

The green watering system has been fine tuned by the greenkeepers  .. perfect timing as the temperature is due to crank up over the weekend and into next week!

The women are leading the way in the Club Competitions with three finalists now decided in the women’s draws. Top billing and many congratulations goes to Viv, winning through to her first final in the Women’s 2-woods! In the 4-woods, this year’s Womens champion will be contested between one of our newest and youngest playing members (?) JenB and last year’s losing finalist Jenny.

All draws are pretty much on schedule and I’m quite relaxed for semi-finals to be completed a week after the 18th deadline, if required. Competitions 2024

In the penultimate round of Friday Triples there were wins for teams captained by AlanP, Alison & Karen. This decides the top honours and wooden spoon placings, but all is to play for in the middle in next week’s final round of games.

Nikki (14 pts); Alison (10); Karen (10); Eileen (8); AlanP (8); Diane (4)

It was a good weekend of bowls for Sunbury. On Saturday we visited Byfleet for a return friendly and after sharing the rinks 2-2 we won overall by a rather close 5 shots. We nipped the home fixture back in June by an even closer margin of 2 shots, so you could say the clubs are pretty evenly matched. On Sunday it was the turn of an SML game hosting bottom side Stanwell. At half time Sunbury had comfortable leads on two rinks and it was all to play for on the other two. The day ended with wins on 3 rinks and on overall shots to cement an 8-2 win, putting some daylight between us and bottom placed Stanwell.

There was a close finish in the latest round of Friday Triples. The league leaders captained by Nikki played 2nd placed team captained by Eileen, and with two ends remaining it was 14-14 and anyone’s game. A fine finish by Viv, TonyH and Tracy saw them through and take the title for Nikki and the rest of the team, Cassie and John. In the others games there were wins for teams captained by Alison and Karen.

Nikki (14 pts); Alison (8); Eileen (8); Karen (8); AlanP (6); Diane (4)

Particular congratulations to Nikki for her second win in three years, and TonyH for being a member of the winning team two years’ running.

In our Club Competitions, JenB becomes our first finalist in the Women’s Championship but, boy, did she have to dig deep .. coming back from a long way down against the unfortunate Tracy. All the draws are up to date here .. Competitions 2024

Congratulations and well done to Anita who received her Middlesex county badge this week, playing in a winning team match against Berkshire. Fingers crossed for one last push in her final of the Middlesex Women’s Unbadged Singles on Saturday 10th at Cambridge Park.

The Sunbury team got back to winning ways on Wednesday in the latest friendly against Walton .. recording wins on all 4 rinks, albeit some closer than others! This completes the first double of the season after we beat them narrowly in May, on a similarly hot day.

Next up is another round of games in the Friday Triples league and then team games on both Saturday and Sunday.

As we’ve already seen in the Olympics it can often be fine margins between winning and losing and so it proved in two recent SML team matches. We got the luck against Fordbridge Park the previous weekend with an 8-2 win when it could easily have been the reverse. In the latest match at Strawberry Hill on Sunday we were within touching distance of gaining wins on two rinks, but alas it wasn’t to be and we recorded a 10-0 loss. This leaves the team one place off bottom, courtesy of Stanwell, which adds an edge to the next SML match on Sunday 4th August .. against Stanwell! Before that we entertain Walton in a return friendly on Wednesday 31st July and travel to Byfleet for a friendly on Saturday 3rd August. Please keep checking the team sheets in the clubhouse for sign-up and team selection.

Last week’s Friday Triples saw wins for teams captained by AlanP, Eileen and Nikki. This leaves Nikki’s team in a healthy position with 3 rounds to go.

Nikki (12 pts); Eileen (8); AlanP (6); Alison (6); Karen (6); Diane (4)

As some of you may have seen we’ve had some foxes on and around the green over the past week, leaving unwanted deposits and holes in the green. The green keeping team are exploring ideas to deter them but please do continue to keep the area as clean and tidy as possible.

We ventured across the river again for the latest team friendly on Wednesday at Oatlands Park. It’s a fixture where the hosts maintain a taste for past traditions and although the match was limited to 3 triples on the day, Sunbury came away with a respectable 52-43 loss. We continue on our travels this weekend with an SML game at Strawberry Hill on Sunday 28th. Following that, we play our first team match at Sunbury in a while with a friendly against Walton on Wednesday 31st. The sign-up sheets for some of the early August team games are in the clubhouse so please take a look when next there.

This season’s Club Competitions are hotting up with most now at the quarter-final or semi-final stage. The radar has been focused on those who may end up in multiple finals as we’d rather avoid the 5, 6 and even 7 finals that we’ve had in the recent past! Having said that, if it happens we’ll applaud it and manage it as best we can. There’ll be a new name on the Women’s Championship trophy as past winners Anita, Eileen, Karen and Lynda have all now been knocked out. Also in the Men’s Championship there is only one past winner left in the draw and he’s nervously hoping the same fate doesn’t befall him! Many thanks to the folk who dare to go away during bowls season and have managed their games accordingly and the best of luck to all those who are due to play competition games over the coming weeks. All the draws should be up to date and available online and on the paper sheets in the clubhouse so please get in touch with any updates .. Competitions 2024

Congratulations to Tracy and Karen who made it an all-female final for this season’s Presidents Cup. After a series of shorter games played in three groups, we ended up with the group winners and a best runner-up (a lot closer than expected, in fact a nightmare for the Competitions Secretary to determine!). In a reversal of last year’s semi-final Tracy gained some revenge over 3-times winner AlanP and finished the day as the only unbeaten player. In the other semi-final, Karen beat the unlucky Keith. So, the Presidents Cup will have a new name on it at the end of the season and will join Cassie’s, as the only woman to have won it back in 2018.

We were very fortunate to avoid the previous day’s hottest day of the year, in fact it worked out very well with plenty of cloud cover and a touch of sun. Thanks to everyone who made the day work so well from Nikki/Dennis with the well-received pizza and refreshments to some first-time markers doing a great job with the tricky and fast-moving 4-3-2-1 scoring. We thought we may get one draw over the course of the day but in the end we had three – Alison somehow contributing to two of them! One of our new bowlers, AlanT, is fast making his mark and was very near to reaching his first semi-final. Lastly I’d like to thank the guys who finished towards the bottom of the pack but kept on trying regardless. Everyone’s contribution and enthusiasm makes for a great day.

We rounded off the weekend with a trip to Fordbridge Park for a Mixed Triples match in the SML. They are always great hosts and so it proved on the green too as we won on 3 rinks and shots overall 63-61 for an 8-2 win. It could easily have been the reverse as two of the rinks were very close affairs. The win hopefully moves us off bottom of the table.

The latest round of matches in the Friday Triples saw wins for teams captained by Diane, Karen and Nikki, the last one albeit by one shot! Standings : Nikki (10 pts); Alison (6); Eileen (6); Karen (6); AlanP (4); Diane (4)

With so many club competitions games taking place this coming week, just a reminder to try and book a rink online so the greenkeepers can plan green cuts. Also, the finals of our Club Competitions will be held on the weekend of Sat 31st August & Sunday 1st September. As always, it’ll be best endeavours to accommodate finalists requests for a specific day, but that’s not always possible. The Men’s and Women’s Championship matches will be played on the Sunday.

The Presentation & Awards dinner will be held at Fulwell Golf Club on the evening of Friday 15th November.

Most of you may have seen the implementation of boxes for the equipment required for each rink. Please keep things together as best you can and we’ll see how it goes. Next up for most of us is Club Night on Tuesday .. it should be good with the weather set fair and the green playing very well.

The last of our all-day club competitions takes place this Saturday. It’ll be played in a round-robin format over a series of shorter games played with 4-3-2-1 scoring. The weather forecast for the day is looking pretty good, hopefully not too hot – they’ll be plenty of opportunity for breaks from playing or marking as they’ll be 18 players/markers on the green at one time and we’ve had offers of other markers. As usual the draw will take place on the day – please congregate from 10am for a 10:30am start. Here is the playlist so please let me have changes asap.

AlanP; AlanT; Alison; Anita; BobH; Charlie; Chris; Eileen; JenB; Jenny; John; Julia; Karen; Keith; Lynda; Maggie; Neil; Nikki; Pat; Peter; Richard; Roger; Tracy

This year’s Bluewood Shield(Cup!) is fast approaching which is a day-long competition involving Sunbury, Hampton and hosts Fordbridge Park – a series of short games competed over Mixed Triples, Men’s, Women’s & Mixed Pairs. We actually won it last year Bluewood Cup 2023, the first time in six years, and I’m sure previous winners Hampton, in particular, will be very keen to wrestle the trophy back. If you’d like to be considered for playing please sign-up on the sheet in the clubhouse.

For info, the new date for the postponed SML team match against Bishop Duppas is Thurs 29th August 2:30pm.

Thanks again for all the enthusiasm to get games played in the Club Competitions – all the draws are pretty much up to date online and on the sheets in the clubhouse. Competitions 2024