Gill Wins Champion of Champions at Bowls Club
On Wednesday 31 August, Henley visited Maidenhead Thicket in a four triples mixed friendly match winning on three rinks with the resulting score 73-58. Barrie Davies with Joan Edwards and John Wilkinson raced to a 15 shot lead after seven ends, were 11 up after seventeen ends then picked up a 7 to win 28-10. Andy Scott with Frank Powell and Trish Jones scored shots steadily and were 10 up after eight ends but fell away a little to only to 6 up after eleven ends but then ran out winners 17-9. Peter Borsberry with Peter Watkins and Nigel Bridges were trailing by 1 after nine ends, pulled away to be 5 up after fifteen ends and maintained this lead with the score 16-11 after eighteen ends. Kevin Browne with Jeanie Davies and Brian Duddy dropped a 6 on the first end, and struggled throughout going down 12-28.
On the weekend of 3/4 September, Henley held the finals of its season-long Knockout Competitions. The format of these competitions changed significantly this year, with all but the Ladies’ and Men’s Championships being open to any playing member, regardless of gender. This essentially halved the number of competitions to be played but increased the entrants in all of them. Also, all competitions, (again excluding the Championships) applied member’s handicaps which made many games closely fought affairs. Even the Pairs competitions were seeded so making for more balanced partnerships.
On the Saturday, Jo Wilson partnered with Peter Falle (recently crowned this season’s Novices Champion), beat Maurice Robins and Steve Sullivan. Later that day, with the sun shining for all but a short 10min shower, Jo and Peter were pitted against each other in the 4 Wood Singles competition with Peter coming out on top. Peter’s handicap is clearly going to increase for next season. In the 2 Wood Singles, Simon Hatcher beat Steve Sullivan and in the 3 Wood Singles Kevin Browne beat Barrie Davies. In the 91 Up competition, which is where the 4 bowls closest to the jack score 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively, Dave Wilson beat Peter Watkins.
On the Sunday, Steve Sullivan finally got a win in the 4 Wood Pairs. Steve, partnered with David Palmer, beat Joan Edwards and Brian Duddy. The Championship matches were then held in the afternoon with Simon Hatcher beating Barrie Davies in the Men’s match and Gill Robins beating Sally Daniells in the Ladies match. The weather was less kind with the odd bout of drizzle interfering the games but not enough to require players to leave the green. The final match of the day was the Champion of Champions with the Ladies’ Champion, Gill Robins, playing the Men’s Champion Simon Hatcher over 6 ends. This is the third time Gill has been overall Champion at the Club with her first win back in 2003.
Many spectators turned up, particularly for the Sunday afternoon games, and were treated to hard fought but entertaining competition.
