This week saw the last round of matches in the keenly contested Friday Morning League. It was a glorious day for bowls and spectators alike but somewhat sticky on the green initially after the recent rain and fog. There were nervy wins for both Nikki’s and Alan’s teams which means they tie on 12 points (6 wins) at the top. We await the official result after shots, etc. are counted up.

12 pts (6 wins) – AlanP; Nikki

10 pts (5 wins) – Diane; Eileen

8 pts (4 wins) – Alison; Karen

Team Friendlies continued this week with Sunbury visiting Cambridge Park on Wednesday. We enjoyed comfortable wins on 2 of the 3 rinks. Next up is a friendly at Esher today (Saturday 27th). Good luck to all, especially any bowlers making their debut.

It’s now one week to go before Finals of this season’s Club Competitions – the weather looks to be set fair for the coming week and, crucially, the weekend .. I only take note of the forecasts that give a positive outlook! The provisional schedule for the weekend will be published during the week – we have 14 finals split over the two days. Please do get in touch if you can help with marking – 10 matches will require markers. If anyone still has trophies at home from last year please could you return them to the clubhouse. The annual Presentation of awards etc. will be held in November at Fulwell Golf Club. Please take note of an orange sheet in the corridor of the clubhouse to specify preference for lunch or dinner.

The ever-popular Club Night will continue on Tuesday evening until the green closes in October. As the evenings begin to draw in we are requesting participants to roll up a little earlier at 5:30pm for a prompt start soon after.

It’s two weeks to go until the finals of the Club Competitions and the battle is hotting up to secure a place. Congratulations to Colin in reaching the final of the highly competitive Junior Championship – it has the largest number of entries by far! Congratulations also go to Liam (Men’s handicap); Anita (Women’s handicap); Karen (Women’s 2-woods); Pat & Karen (Women’s Pairs). They’ll be joined by others this coming week and next – good luck to all.

The Friday Morning League on 19th resulted in wins for teams captained by AlanP; Alison and Nikki which leaves it all to play for going into the last week.

10 points (5 wins) – AlanP; Diane; Nikki

8 points (4 wins) – Alison; Eileen; Karen

Last round of fixtures on Fri 26th – Alison v AlanP; Karen v Eileen; Diane v Nikki

We competed in the Bluewood Shield at Fordbridge Park on Saturday 20th. This is an annual 3-club competition between the hosts, Hampton and Sunbury. Unlike last year it was a glorious day to play bowls with last year’s winners, Hampton, taking the honours again by a couple of points. Sunbury came a creditable 3rd again with a fair few narrow losses during the day. There was no stopping top scorers Eileen & Karen who collected 7 points out of a possible 8 in the Women’s Pairs. Thanks to all supporters .. young and old!

   

No, not a reference to the yesterday’s downpours but a plea from the greenkeepers for help putting the green to bed over the weekend of 1-2 October. In order to give it the best possible chance for next season it needs some nurturing before the winter sets in – scarifying, top dressing, rolling and fertilising before erecting a fence around the green. The current plan is to commence works on Saturday 1st Oct so any help would be appreciated – more details nearer the time.

Before green closure though we have more bowls. Some of the club competitions are now at semi-final stage, including the deferred semi-finals from the day-long Presidents Cup. A match played this week must be a contender for longest match played this season –  Tracy and Bindley competed in their quarter-final of the Women’s Handicap over 29 ends .. well done to both and marker Barry!

In county competitions, Tracy & Eileen put up a brave performance at the Middlesex Women’s county finals at Cambridge Park but came off second to a strong pair from Bury Lodge. Sunbury can claim some kudos though as the eventual winner was Sarah Hall, and partner, who started her bowling here at Sunbury in 2017 before moving to Cambridge Park. The last representatives from Sunbury in county competitions this season is a mixed Fours of Nikki, Dennis, Karen & AlanP who recently won by a single shot at Bishop Duppas in their quarter-final of the South Middlesex John Gardner Trophy. The semi-final is due to be played at a neutral ground against Fordbridge Park.

Here’s how the rest of the month is looking ..

Fri 19th 11:00am – Friday Morning League – the penultimate round of games

Sat 20th 10:00am – Bluewood Shield at Fordbridge Park – a 3-club day-long competition

Tue 23rd 5:45pm – Club Night with coaching for some new players

Wed 24th 2:30pm – Cambridge Park v Sunbury team friendly

Fri 26th 11:00am – Friday Morning League – deciding round of games

Sat 27th 10:30am – Presidents Cup semi-finals – played to 75pts with 4-3-2-1 scoring

Sat 27th 2:30pm – Esher v Sunbury team friendly

Tues 30th 5:45pm – Club Night

NB: All fixtures and progress on competitions are available on the website.

Eileen & Tracy will be representing Sunbury at the Middlesex Women’s Finals Day tomorrow, Saturday 13th, at Cambridge Park. They are due to play their semi-final at 1pm with the final at 4pm. It will be roasting hot on the green with the sun shining on the Sunbury pair whatever the result!

Unfortunately Bob & Anita came off second in their recent quarter-final Middlesex Mixed Pairs encounter at Ashford this week, the same pair that Tracy & AlanP lost to in the previous round.

On a personal note to myself .. must try harder, after losing by a single shot for the 3rd time this season in Mixed Pairs competitions – this time in a South Middlesex quarter-final with Karen at Staines!

The club competitions are hotting up and it’s been encouraging to see so many matches played this week despite the heatwave – playing early or later in the day has certainly helped. Congratulations to those who’ve progressed to semi-finals – Colin; Anita; Karen; Alison; Lynda; BobH, BobL, John, AlanP; Barry. All the draws are up to date so please do get in touch with any omissions, etc.. Mens 2022  Womens 2022  Mixed 2022

As expected Sunbury have slid down the South Middlesex League table as others play games in hand. We have one fixture remaining – away to Teddington. Unfortunately Cambridge Park have withdrawn from the league so the fixture arranged for 24th will be played as a friendly.

The Cricket Club have given notice of some key events taking place over the coming months – please contact them for any tickets, etc..

As the Friday Morning League moves into the final two weeks, Diane’s team tops the table after a comfortable win against Karen’s team. Alison’s team kept their hopes alive with a good win over Nikki’s team.

5 wins – Diane

4 wins – AlanP; Eileen; Karen; Nikki

3 wins – Alison

We hosted Walton on Wednesday for a team friendly which finished with two wins each. The new fixture on Saturday at Byfleet also finished 2-2. It was great to see some new faces make their debuts across the matches. On Sunday we played Stanwell at home with South Middlesex League points at stake. We had comfortable wins on two rinks, a narrow loss on another and a draw on the last one. This resulted in a 7-3 win for Sunbury which puts the brakes on us falling down the league!

The weather for the coming week and beyond is forecast to be very hot but please do try and get competition games played. Perhaps an early morning or evening encounter could be arranged as we’d all prefer games to be played rather than defaulted. So let’s see how it goes. All the competition sheets online and in paper-form are up to date – please let me know of any issues. Good luck everyone!

Mens 2022          Womens 2022        Mixed 2022

Something that slipped under the radar is the Middlesex Women’s 2-woods Pairs. Tracy & Eileen entered the day-long competition at Bishop Duppas on Saturday and did rather well! They beat a home pairing, then enjoyed an extra-end win against an Ashford pair. They completed 60 ends of play on the day with a comfortable quarter-final win against Hurlingham Park. They go to Cambridge Park on Sat 13th for the semi-finals .. and final?!

We shared the spoils in last week’s team friendly with Oatlands Park and this week we host Walton on Wednesday. After that we visit Byfleet in a brand new fixture on Saturday 6th but are a number of players short. Tom is acting captain whilst Diane is away so please put your names down – new bowlers are particularly invited to play. Please see Tom at Club Night or reply to this plea.

Hopefully this is the last you’ll hear about the water pump! Dennis and his support team have successfully installed the new motor to the pump, although the electrics needed modifying to accommodate the newly vigorated pump that now reaches all the corners and edges of the green.

The team friendly with Hayes was cancelled due to unavailability of players. This is a fixture cancelled by Hayes twice previously and is probably going to disappear from the calendar. We host Strawberry Hill on Sunday and then Walton on Wednesday.

In the Friday Morning League there were wins for teams captained by Nikki, Eileen and Diane. With 3 weeks left this leaves the table looking very tight at the top ..

4 wins – Diane; Eileen; Karen; Nikki

3 wins – AlanP

2 wins – Alison

 

We played back to back South Middlesex League matches over the weekend. Despite best efforts we came away from Staines on Saturday with nil points. At times it was hard to figure out what shots to play! We ended up losing 93-49 on shots and an overall 10-0 loss. This was followed on Sunday with a visit to table-topping Fordbridge Park. Despite leading on two of the rinks going into the final ends we, again, ended up with nil points! We lost by 80-59 shots and a 10-0 loss.

The weekend results sees us drop to 3rd in the league but we won’t have to play either Staines or Fordbridge Park again this season!

Next up is a home friendly against Oatlands Park on Wednesday afternoon. Please let Diane know if you’d like to play .. it won’t be as intense as the weekend games were!

After the latest set of games (round 6 of 10) in the Friday Morning League here’s how the teams are placed :

4 wins – Karen

3 wins – AlanP; Diane; Eileen; Nikki

2 wins – Alison

 

In the club competitions, we are at the quarter-final stage for the Junior Championship and the Open Handicap and in fairly good shape for most of the others. Thanks to everyone for getting their games played! I’m being a bit flexible on the play-by dates but please bear in mind we have Finals weekend in 6 weeks time. All the draws are up to date here ..

Mens 2022

Womens 2022

Mixed 2022

The mini-heatwave has thankfully come to an end so we should be back to normal with Tuesday Club Night. Also good luck to those playing further competition games over the coming week or so.

Finally, a special mention to Anita who played in the Middlesex over-55 Singles recently, winning in the 4th round at Bishop Duppas and losing out narrowly in the 5th round at home to Ashford. By all accounts it was played to a very high standard.

If like me you assumed replacing the water pump was like doing one in a fish tank – submerging your hand in water and fishing it out .. think again!

The automated watering system that’s used has evolved over a number of years. The water tank itself lurks between the green and paddock with most of it buried into the ground. After draining the tank, access to the pump and motor involves climbing into the tank via step ladders before disconnecting the various pipes. Lifting out the pump is as much a challenge due to the weight! Unfortunately there are extended waiting times to get someone to do the work so we’re reliant on Dennis to fit the new pump motor when it arrives in a few days time. We’re lucky to have folk like Dennis in the club, an ex-BA engineer, who can turn his hands to most things engineering-like .. we wish him and his helpers well, at least the excessive heat may have dissipated by then!

    

In the meantime, we rely on some manual watering ..

You may have already heard that Club Night is cancelled tomorrow night due to the extreme heat. We would also like to discourage large numbers onto the green whilst we have issues with it. Individual games using one selected rink are still okay. The watering system needs a new pump motor and this is hopefully being sought this week but, unfortunately, the sprinkler borrowed from the cricket club isn’t doing a great job due to the low water pressure. To add to the woes, foxes have been spotted tearing up parts of the green. Again this is being addressed and the green keepers are hoping this is the end of the run of bad luck!

We have two important team matches this coming weekend – both are South Middlesex League matches and are away at Staines and Fordbridge Park. We won’t have any green issues to content with but we are struggling to get full teams – we’re currently after 5 more players for Saturday and 1 for Sunday. If you can help out please get in touch with our captain Diane, or reply to this news update.

On a more positive note, the club competitions are doing well with both the Open Handicap and Junior Championship now down to the quarter-finals. The Mens competitions are doing okay too; the Women’s has less entrants and will undoubtedly click into action as we head towards August.