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

 

Anita won through to the Middlesex Women’s Unbadged Singles final in dramatic style at Ashford on Saturday. She came from behind in both her quarter-final and semi-final matches to level the score at 20-20 and went on to get the winning shot in both games on the deciding end. As for JenB, competing in the same competition, on her own admission and standards, it was a bad day on the bowls green! Karen put up a great effort fighting it out amongst the county’s women club champions on Sunday losing to an eventual finalist in her quarter final in Champion of Champions.

Anita plays her final on Saturday 10th August at Cambridge Park .. all support welcome.

We enjoyed a good afternoon of bowls at Ember on Sunday in the latest team friendly. Despite some traffic headaches we all got there on time, beating the opposition in one case as she went to Sunbury by mistake! The rinks were shared 2-2 but we nicked the win 55-54 on overall shots.  Congratulations to John who picked up the prize money for the shot nearest the spider, a novel change to the raffle.

It wasn’t quite the same story in our SML game at Staines on Saturday, with the “green” being the challenge. The start was delayed due to traffic issues (a recurring theme!) and in the end we came away contented with an 8-2 loss. We move onto the next game on Sunday 21st at Fordbridge Park.

Friday Triples resumed this week with wins for the teams led by AlanP, Eileen and Nikki. In a complete reversal of fortunes, this leaves last year’s winning captain at the bottom and the wooden spoon holder on top! .. Nikki (8pts); Alison (6); Eileen (6); AlanP (4); Karen (4); Diane (2)

After being pelted with around a month’s worth of rain over the last few days, the green is now fully open. Activities are returning to normal with Friday Triples resuming after last week’s postponement. The green will also get its regular cut on Friday evening, but please be aware it may need swishing before any play. If you treat it like a warm-up before bowling it isn’t so bad! You may also notice a few changes taking place inside the club chalet with plenty of clear boxes on show .. let us know what you think.

We have a couple of team games this weekend, both are away matches ..

Sat 13th 2:30pm – Staines v Sunbury (SML)

Sun 14th 2:30pm – Ember v Sunbury (friendly)

Also this weekend, we wish the very best of luck to three of our women bowlers who are flying the flag for Sunbury Bowls Club in county competitions. Anita and JenB compete in the Middlesex Unbadged Singles quarter-finals at Ashford on Saturday. If both were to win they’d play each other in a semi-final afterwards. Karen has a little further to go, travelling to Broomfield on Sunday, to play in the Middlesex Champion of Champions quarter-finals. Again, a semi-final awaits the same day if she were to win. Good luck to all.

Unfortunately the weather is winning at the moment, forcing a postponement of last Sunday’s SML team match with Bishop Duppas, upsetting some club competition games, as well as cancelling this week’s Club Night! The green has been badly impacted, with the worms having a field day.

On the positive it does look to be improving in time for Friday Triples and the weekend’s matches with Staines (SML) and Ember (friendly) as well as any ad-hoc roll-ups.

Looking a little further ahead we have the last of our day-long club competitions on Saturday 20th – the Presidents Cup. The format will be a series of shorter Singles games played using the scoring format 4-3-2-1 for the 4 bowls closest to the jack, regardless of who’s holding shot bowl. The current playlist is here so please get in touch if you can no longer make it or would like to be included. Final names will be announced a few days before.

AlanP; AlanT(?); Alison; Anita; Barry; BobH; Charlie; Chris; Eileen; JenB; Jenny; John; Julia; Karen; Keith; Linda; Lynda; Maggie; Nathan; Neil; Nikki; Pat; Paul; Peter; Richard; Roger; Tracy

All the competitions have been updated online (as at Sunday 7th) so please get in touch with any updates/errors .. Competitions 2024

The reigning Men’s and Women’s champions negotiated tricky opening games this week to progress to the quarter-finals. Dennis saw off Nathan and Karen beat Eileen; both games proved to be a great watch .. but perhaps not great for the competitors’ nerves!  There’s been lots of other games played in all competitions and without any concessions which is great testimony to the enthusiasm afforded by all .. win or lose!

There were some mixed results in the Middlesex county competitions this week. The highlight was Karen coming out on top in her Women’s Champion of Champions match at Staines. She then received a walkover from Strawberry Hill in the next round to progress to the quarter-finals. Tracy & Barry enjoyed a good run in the Mixed Pairs but came out second best to an Ashford pair; as did Anita & Bob at Staines. Our last-standing Women’s Triples of Jenny, Tracy & JenB tried their best against a very experienced Ashford team.

Unfortunately, this week’s Friday Triples was postponed due to some wet weather .. it is Wimbledon after all! The matches will be played at some future date.

Next up on the green, apart from club competition games, is an SML team match with Bishop Duppas on Sunday 7th.

Just be aware that our next Club Night on Tuesday 9th coincides with a cricket function .. a T10 Exhibition Match featuring Middx & England Legends v Sunbury All Stars, starting at 5:30pm. The paddock will be open for parking.

We were blessed with yet another sunny day for the latest club competition, the Presidents Plate. An unprecedented number of entrants saw ten teams of triples play a series of four short games according to a swiss-system format. Despite some mighty close games, and numerous draws, two teams finished clear of the chasing pack and qualified for finals weekend. Hats off to Andrea who has been in fine form of late and qualified for her first final, alongside more seasoned teammates Cassie and AlanP. The second spot went to Pat, Keith & Dennis with a vital win in their last game. Thanks once again to Nikki, overcoming some particular challenges yesterday, to provide refreshments and lunch. Everyone is welcome to enter the last of our day-long competitions on Saturday 20th July, the grandly named Presidents Cup. It’s a singles 4-3-2-1 scoring format which favours those who may get close to the jack but tend to get pipped to shot wood!

Presidents Plate 2024

The latest round of Friday Triples saw a first win for the team managed by AlanP, inflicting a first defeat for Alison’s team. There were also wins for Karen’s team and Nikki’s, who moved into joint top spot …  Alison (6pts); Nikki (6pts); Eileen (4pts); Karen (4pts); Alan (2pts); Diane (2pts)

Sunbury have entered a team into Thursday night’s NW Surrey Mixed Fours league for some time, ably managed by Eileen. This year it was decided to enter another team, effectively doubling the woes for Eileen in arranging teams. But things are looking pretty bright thus far .. Div 2 (won 5; lost 2); Div 3 (won 3; lost 3).

Good luck to all those representing Sunbury in external competitions this week and to those partaking in our club competitions and Club Night .. the summer is racing through with July here tomorrow!