Thame Bowls Club weekly newsletter No 1.
Following a full closed season of social events and a brand-new Short Mat League entry (and many friendly afternoons and evenings), Thame were looking forward to opening the outdoor matches. A good number of hardy souls worked hard in preparing the Green and it is now up to some summer sun to complete the picture.
The first friendly game for Thame was Captained by Ron Duncan, away against ChessVale and they were narrowly beaten 81 to 88.
The only winning rink was Terry Emberson, Keith Brooks and Roger Blackburn, who won by eight shots. Although the surface was challenging, we had enjoyable afternoon which started in sunshine but ended in rain!
The second match was on Sunday 23 April away at Marlow Captained by Roger Blackburn who says ‘A big thankyou to all players that turned up at Marlow despite the forecast of rain all day, luckily the rain held off until we got back in the clubhouse. It’s good that we managed to field six triples without a few of the regulars present, which bodes well for the coming season. We did lose on all 6 rinks, but they had some very strong players scattered throughout the teams. The captain’s team was particularly strong, we did well to hold them to a 5-point deficit. Our best rink was Caroline Walker, Maire Duncan and Heather Hallchurch who lost by one point on the last leg. The trio of Jesse, Norman, and Terri fought back well in the 2nd half to go into the last end only 2 points down.
The final score however was 101 to Marlow and 71 to Thame.
The midweek match against Princes Risborough on 26 April was Captained by Gordon Taylor and featured another defeat for Thame by 43 shots to 80 with no winning rink. The team of Roger Mackriell, Terri Blackburn and Gordon Taylor did manage a draw and there are high hopes that in the forthcoming games, the first win is not too far away.
28.4.23