We’ve reached that time of year when the evenings draw in, the worms do their worst on the green and our club competitions come to a crescendo. After three months of intense competition all the draws are at semi-final stage and with the lineups of some finals already decided. Please could those lucky enough to have won trophies last season, please return them .. and with some degree of polish!

Sunday saw our penultimate South Middlesex League game. Hampton got some degree of revenge over Sunbury’s Bluewood Cup win with an 8-2 win. The last game is against Ashford at home on Saturday. It’s doubtful it will affect our last place standing in the league but it’d be nice to finish on a high! We wrap up our programme of team friendlies with a home game on Thursday followed by three away games in September, which are always ones to enjoy for various reasons.

The latest round of Friday Triples saw wins for teams managed by Alison, Diane and Eileen which leaves gaps between them all with four rounds left to go!

18pts – Eileen; 14pts – Diane; 12pts – Colin; 10pts – Simon; 8pts – Alison; 4pts – Nikki

There is a sign-up sheet in the summerhouse for the annual Men v Women game on 20th September followed by family bbq. All are welcome including friends & family. The game decides the fate of the Mavis Steele trophy, named after Sunbury’s most decorated bowler. She represented England for 40 years, was England Ladies Outdoor champion three times and was awarded an MBE for her services to bowls. We’re lucky that we have an almost 50-50 split between men and women bowlers at Sunbury which is unheard of in most other clubs. Despite the women being rather good bowlers too the men have found a way of finishing on top every year since 2021.

In the remaining external competitions, you may catch Tracy and JenB deciding who progresses to the final of the South Middlesex (SM) Women’s Singles .. they play their semi-final during tonight’s Club Night; Thursday sees Alan, Karen, Martin & Nikki play a semi-final in the SM John Gardner trophy at Ashford; Tracy plays another semi-final on Friday at Fordbridge Park in the SM 75pts; Alan & Karen play their NW Surrey Mixed Pairs final at Ottershaw on Sunday; Tracy goes yet again, this time with Alan in their next round of the Middlesex Mixed Pairs on Bank Holiday Monday at Sunbury; Finally, Eileen plays her SM Women’s Singles semi-final at Bishop Duppas on Tues 1st.