News

On Saturday night 14th September we had a brilliant turnout of 60+ for a Race Night at the Club.  The evening was organised for us by Ken and Claire Lewis with Ken’s brother Tom and wife Jan running the show.  Tom and Jan are experienced race night presenters and were happy to come to Thame so we could enjoy the fun.

Feedback has been great, the organisation was slick and it was a fantastic evening, one I hope that we can have again sometime soon!  The bonus was that it was also a healthy evening of exercise, at least for those who had to get out of their chair and walk to collect their winnings.

Many thanks goes to Phil Reed and the team behind the bar for helping to keep everyone 'hydrated'.

But most of all, thanks very much Ken for making it all happen. 

Pictured here are Ken at the back with Tom, Claire, Jan and photo-bomber Sue Boyle, known to us all as Quiz Night host (photo courtesy of Phil Boyle, thanks Phil).

On the wet Sunday morning of 23rd July, the pictured Jesse Matthews, Melv Warner and Greenkeeper Chris Shannon were the volunteers who turned out to cut the green ready for the match later that day against Wendover. 

The green is mowed 2 or 3 times a week to keep it as one of the best playing surfaces in the county and because this work is done by volunteer club members while most of us are getting on with our lives, it often goes unnoticed, but I sincerely hope not unappreciated. 

The people who work on our green alongside Chris are, in no particular order, Jesse, Melv, John and Wendy Rawson, Barry Green, John Ashfield, Peter Gibbons and when he is available, Peter’s grandson Will Gent.  Those who regularly look after the grass surrounds and flowers are Roger Blackburn, Ian Griffiths, Maggie Gibbons and Ann Ashfield. 

Please let them know their work is appreciated next time you see them. 

President Les Canfield had this to say after his big day:

A great day, weather was nice, a bit windy but it did not stop play.

We had two spiders and the moving goal posts.  Thanks to the club members who donated the prizes .

Thanks goes to Bill for doing his raffle board.  

Thanks to Joanna and Barbara for setting up the bottle raffle, the wonderful table settings and their tea making.  

Thanks also for those who helped on the bar and of course all those members able to support my day.

Many thanks goes to Russell for his support in the organisation and planning of the event.

I'm delighted to say we were able to donate over £300 to Cancer Research from our activities on the day.

More photos are now in the Photo Gallery. Please click here - you'll need to be logged in to see them.

For the first time in a few years we beat our good friends of South Oxford Bowls Club in our annual Norfolk Cup contest.

Here we see John Rawson being presented with the Cup and the team on the green. 

Bill Giles presented the hot shots certificates and badges to Mike Hants, Pat Munday, Roger Blackburn and Les Canfield for their scoring of 8 shots in one end at Adderbury on Saturday May 13th.

Roger Blackburn, team captain said "This was Pat’s first competitive game for the club and Mike Hants first season playing outdoors for the club so congratulations to them both."

It is my very sad duty to let you know that Simon Bell has passed away.

Many of you will remember him as a true gentleman who used to bowl his size 7 woods from the hip with devastating results.

I am in contact with his family and will let you know about him and the funeral arrangements when I get them.

On a  very wet night we had our first aunt Sally session of the season.

Ray & Barry

Aunt Sally restarts on Tuesday 11th April at 6pm.

Barry and Ray will be your hosts and the bar will be open.

If you've never played before full training will be given and it is a game for anyone.

So come along and give it a go.

More information from Wikipedia here

As you may be aware the Sports Club have joined the Vale Short Mat Bowls Friendly League (VSMBFL) this season.

There is a Short Mat button at the top of the page.

If you don't want to navigate through that then the following links will take you direct:

When updated the VSMBFL results are here

Similarly the League table is here

A brief write-up can be found here (you will need to scroll down past the fixture list to get to the latest write-up)

Thank you too everyone who came and contributed so much to the Quiz Night on Friday 3rd.  Thanks especially go to Jo for organising the whole event, to Barbara and Lydia for doing the raffle and everyone who donated raffle prizes, Ray and Barbara who covered for Jo and Barry who had to pull out at the last minute due to Covid and to Peter, Phil and Ian for doing the bar.  

Sue and Phil who hosted the Quiz brilliantly as ever were delighted with the donation to the Stroke Association Charity that they support and they committed to do it all again for us. 

With the obvious fun everyone was having, it was, all in all, a very successful evening.

It was our Secretary/Greenkeeper/Sports Club Treasurer’s team that won the prizes with an outstanding score and they are pictured here celebrating with quiz host Sue Boyle.   

The Short Mat Pairs Competition reached a climax on 7th February with the Final being played by Byron Harvey and Bill Giles against Deirdre Page and Sandra French.  

The Final was incredibly close, initial ends scoring just one shot to one side or the other and the match went into the final 10th end with the score at 8-7 to Bill and Byron.  It looked as if an 11th end might be needed because one each of Byron’s and Sandra’s bowls looked inseparably close to the jack and a careful measure was needed because the naked eye couldn’t determine which was nearest.  Millimetres were in it but Byron’s bowl won out to finish the match with Bill and Byron winning 9-7.  A dramatic end to a great match watched by an absorbed crowd.  

The third place final was also very closely contested, if not quite to such a dramatic end, with Geoff Roynon and Keith Brooks overcoming Robin Hicks and Irene Park by 3 shots.

Given our Chairman was one of the winners, organiser Ian presented the medals kindly bought by Keith, who thankfully received one of them!

The Short Mat Pairs Competition was played over 4 weeks.

8 pairs played each other in two mini leagues followed by a final played by the pairs that finished at the top of their respective league.

A 3rd place decider was played by those pairs who come 2nd in each mini league. 

Matches were played at 7pm on Monday and Tuesday evenings from 16th Jan and the Finals on 7th Feb.

World Cup football on the big screen. 

Our green has now been professionally 'put to bed' for the Winter.  Early Thursday morning Jesse, Barry and Chris mowed and prepped the green in readiness for our playing surface specialists Avonmore Associates to arrive.  Avonmore then scarified, slit and hollow tined the playing surface before treating it with fungicides then top dressing and seeding the whole area.  It's not a cheap affair, but worth it to ensure we have a lovely surface to play on year after year.  

Many thanks go to those of our members who volunteer and spend many hours between them looking after the green and its' surroundings throughout the year, much of which goes unseen by the majority of us.

These are now up in the gallery. Click here to view. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge.

Note, you will need to be registered to see them. If you're not please click here to find out how.

This is the first of an occasional series of articles on club members.

Byron is 70 years old who contracted polio at the age of 2 and has been wheelchair bound ever since. This hasn’t stopped him being a very outgoing character who still works 2 days a week in the Justice Department, and looking for new activities.

He started playing short mat bowls in October 2021 after a friend of his who plays tennis at Thame Sports Club mentioned that since the clubhouse rebuild the club had started a short mat section and they were actively looking to attract new players. As bowls had been on his list of things to try for a while he contacted the Club and was delighted that they were immediately keen to get him involved. So he rocked up one afternoon at one of the open sessions and used the club’s bowls to try it out. He has since played outdoors as well after the bowls section purchased a specially designed rechargeable electric wheelchair for him to play on the green. He has had a steep learning curve and is continually developing his technique by researching online videos, taking on board tips from club members, worked with the coaching team and obviously practising! He currently prefers indoor short mat as he has had a lot more practice at it since starting. He will be playing in the Vale Short Mat Bowls Friendly League for Thame Sports Club this coming season and will also be joining a disabled bowlers club in Oxford. His overall aim is to play in more competitions, including friendly matches against other clubs, both indoor and outdoor in the coming seasons.

Keith Brooks is into building extreme bowls carriers.

0-60 in a day or 2. :-)

Finals Weekend report.

I have just gone through the score cards from the finals weekend matches, a high percentage of the games show the scores very close in the end 21-20 21-18 22-20, etc  63-57 (Lightfoots) Which goes to show that some of the best bowlers in the club meet in the finals. Watching all of the matches, except the one’s I was involved in, or marked for,  I don’t think I could have placed a bet on the outcome  of any game, as most scores changed back and forth as the games progressed. Notable was The Walker cup with Ray Plested 11-0 up after 8 ends, but John Coward came back fighting to win 19-13 ( thanks for the excitement gentlemen, this was a game I marked and enjoyed very much) all of the finalists gave us some great entertainment as good as the Commonwealth Games we had enjoyed a few weeks back.  

I would like to thank Ian & Chris for there great helped to me in organising the weekend, and to all members that entered the competitions from the start, the overall winner was the game of bowls.

There are photos in the photo gallery here. (You will need to be logged in to see them)

Adrian Wilcox.

Competition secretary.

The quiz on the 23rd September was won by a team from Aston Hearing who are one of our sponsors.

The team comprised Stuart, Duncan, Madalene, Mel, Kate, Mark and Karen.

Well done to them and to everyone who attended as we donated £120 to the Stroke Association.

Many thanks to Jo for organising and Sue Boyle for being our Quiz mistress for the night.

The winning team with Jo and Sue Boyle

Eight of our new or newish to bowling players took part in the Paul Heafey Memorial Cup on Tuesday 6th of September.

The match was played by Jenny Bankier, Irene Park, Melv Warner, Peter Hughes, Chris Roberts, Tony Soper and Jeff Quesnel.

We were one short due to a late withdrawal so Keith Brooks thankfully volunteered to help to even up the numbers.  

An 11 end game was played in great spirit, with the odd wrong biased bowl to keep everybody focused.

The final was won by Jenny, Peter, Jeff and Melv and the Cup was kindly presented by Sharon Heafey to the Winners.

A nice comment was made by all at the end to say how much they enjoyed the game as it had a friendly competitive edge.

Adrian Wilcox

Competitions Secretary

Jill Brooks

4/7/22

Midweek Cup 2022 Final Results

Another great afternoon of bowling in the last leg of the Mid Week Cup.

Some very dark looking clouds came over the green as the game started, but we all said the Magic Word Bill Giles and the sun came out.

Well done to Marion’s team who won all of their matches over the last three weeks giving them a convincing win.

Adrian

The winning team of Keith Brooks, Marion Keal and Dave Holland.

Whitsun Cup Report 2022

What a great afternoon of bowls, the sun came out in the second half to help with the people that had frostbite by then. The game was played by 4 teams of 4 players, Team 1 played team 2, and team 3 played team 4. The winners  between 1 & 2 played the winners of 3 & 4 over 10 ends, with a 10 end final and a play off for the runners up from each  side.

The games where played in a great spirit, with a lot of banter, and we rang the bell when John Walkers team finally managed a point in the second round.

Maybe the highlight was the excellent pots of tea made by the competition secretary at half time. :-)

Well done to Team 2 who won the final but maybe the overall winners where all that played an enjoyable afternoon of bowls, 

Adrian

The winning team

All competitors enjoyed a brilliant afternoon competition:

I wonder what Terri is thinking?

We have found an extra pair to play in this competition so we will draw the whole competition again tonight - Tuesday - at around 6pm at the club.

Be there or be square :-)

There have been updates to both the Rink Diary and the website over the winter period.

Rink Diary

This has 2 new features :-

1. The date bar at the top of the screen is now static so that when scrolling up and down

it remains in place.

2. There is now a Create Invitation facility that reserves a slot on a rink but allows up to 3 others to add their names

for a roll-up.

3. There have been some changes to game names e.g. there is now just 1 game name for roll-ups

rather boringly called Roll-up. Please see below regarding booking them.

There is a revised manual online so please check it for more details.

Now that the pandemic situation has changed somewhat the rules on rink booking have changed.

All County, club matches, day tournaments and Friday League have already been entered in the diary.

All internal competition games must be entered in the diary by competitors.

It is now optional to book roll-ups, however, it is strongly recommended that you continue to book them to ensure

you get a rink.

Website

There have been a number of content changes in the Members Area so if you are not registered yet please do so

to access these, and at the same time sign up for the weekly newsletter which will be restarting soon.

The following are updated (on October 8th) documents for the AGM

Thame Bowls Club AGM on Monday, 1st November 2021 commencing at 7.00pm for 7.30pm start at the Bowls Club.

• A list of Officers and Committee Members to serve for the following year will be distributed by e mail and posted on the Club Notice Boards. Please give this some consideration over the coming weeks and come forward if you wish to join the Committee in any of these roles.

• Please let your Secretary, Chris Shannon or me have any propositions you would like to be debated and voted on at the AGM; these should be submitted to us in writing over the next few weeks and no later than Monday 18thOctober. Proposals should be proposed and seconded by Club members. (New ideas are most welcome - so if you have any ideas or proposals for change, please feel free to discuss these with Chris or anyone from the Committee and we will be happy to help formalise these into proposals for consideration at the AGM).

• In addition, the Committee will be very happy to take any questions from the floor, though it will not be possible to vote on any new proposals not submitted formally as above.

• I hope you will all feel it is important that you make every effort to be at the AGM to hear the reports of your Club officials and to hear what your Committee has planned for our Club over the next 12 months.

• As usual, all those attending the AGM will have the opportunity to take part in our annual draw for a free membership during the 2022 season.

Chairman

Bill Giles

2021 Competition Finals

The annual Club Competition Finals were held over the weekend of the 10^th,11th and 12^th September. It was great to see so much support on each of the days by those of us who didn’t quite make it as far as the finals and were checking out the competition for next year.

Across the 3 days there were 12 finals. The weather was kind to us on every day and the standard of bowling was extremely high with a number of nail-biting finishes, but special mention must go to Robin Hicks and John Walker in The Taylor Cup. This is a first to 21 shots competition and the score reached 20 shots each. Ian managed to capture the scoreboard :-

So on to the final end and the final head and in the end it finished looking like this :-

with John Walker scoring 2 shots and claiming the victory.

Robin Hicks had 3 finals to play over the weekend across the three days. He warmed up on Friday evening losing in the Michael Jones Cup, played John Walker in the Taylor Cup on Saturday which we’ve just read about, losing in the last end, but finally won a nail biter in the Jubilee Handicap 22-19 on Sunday against Adrian Wilcox, the match neck and neck right to the end.

Other particularly close games were the Ladies Two Wood Cup that finished 16-14 with Marion finally beating Frances on the last end and the Josey Cup Married Pairs when the Ashfields won 17-16, going into the final end 1 shot down, this one providing an exciting finale to the Friday night matches.

There are pictures in the gallery here of all the winners plus some other photos taken over the 3 days.(Note - click on an image to expand it)

Note you will need to be registered on the website to view these. If you are not and want to subscribe please see the Account Registration button at the top of the web page or click here to go to it.

The full list of winners is :-

Ford Cup                               Heather Hallchurch & Marion Keal

Victory Pairs                         Graham Watson & Mike Sawyer

Josey Cup                             Ann & John Ashfield

Michael Jones Cup                Ian Rutherford

Honour Cup                           Barbara Waters

Two Wood Cop                      Marion Keal

Taylor Cup                             John Walker

Walker Cup                            Chris Shannon

Pomeroy Cup                         Heather Hallchurch

Jubilee Handicap                   Robin Hicks

Warwick Cup                         Deirdre Page & Ray Plested

Coronation Cup                     Ian Rutherford

Many thanks to everyone who helped make these competitions a success especially those who ran the bar and the green team for providing a brilliant playing surface.

Also thanks to Geoff Roynon, Irena Watson and Ian Rutherford for the photos.

Here’s looking forward to next year.

Adrian Wilcox

Competitions Secretary.

19th September 2021

Friday 8th October is the last day the green will be available.

Volunteers will be needed to help close down for the winter so if you can help please let Chris Shannon know.

We'll put up more information on the details of what is required as it becomes available.

The Chairman v Secretary match will now be held on the 25th September at 2pm.

Format will be decided on the day depending on the number of entrants.

If you want to play please put your name up on the board outside the changing rooms.

The following is a summary list of winners of this years Competition Finals.

The Competion Draws have been updated and there will be photos and a bit more detail to follow.

The Presentation Evening is on Saturday 2nd October.

The cost is £5 per head which needs to be paid beforehand and which includes chicken and chips or veggie burger and chips.

Sign up and payment should be made at the bar please - cash only.

The final date to sign up and pay for this is Friday 24th September.

Outline timetable.

Arrivals from 6.00pm

Raffle board on sale and socialising

Welcome and introduction 6.45pm   Bill Giles

Food Arrives 7.00pm - please note this must have been ordered beforehand - see above - as we are using outside caterers.

Presentations begin 7.45                 Adrian Wilcox/Gordon Taylor

Raffle 8.30pm then it's time to admire the trophies on your table and have a few drinks.

The Friday League, which again attracted over 72 players with at least another dozen members helping to run it, has come to an exciting conclusion. Team I consisting of Ken Bennell, Keith Brooks, Ray Lewin, Peter Dawe, Sharon Heafey and John Ashfield narrowly beat Team B ( Geoff Roynon, Peter Gibbons, Heather Halchurch, Adrian Wilcox, Kevin Dennington and Deidre Page) to the title by just 2 points.

The whole eleven weeks were very well attended with many spectators cheering on their favourites and an overall marvellous club spirit continued throughout the tournament.

This great social event for the club was helped in no small way by many non-players with Jane Kimber assisted by Jenny Lowe, Sue Ludgate, Gini Williams and Jill Brooks fed the teams with bacon and sausage rolls whilst John Walker and colleagues kept us well supplied from the bar, Jesse Matthews did a stirling job of laying out all the equipment prior to every game while Maire and Ron Duncan kept control of the scores and results and Philip Reed put all the weekly results on the website. The club received well over £1500 over the season from the Friday League- not including the bar sales- which was largely due to Norman Hyde and Richard Ramsey in persuading all of us to spend on the raffle , which gave away over £600 in prize money. I would like to thank Peter Gibbons too who kindly donated all of the sausages and to the Cornfield Bakery for the bread rolls free of charge.

Next year the Friday League will be in colour! A club member, who wishes to remain anonymous but is an expert in IT,has kindly agreed to supply every team member with a coloured shirt and to enable this to happen in good time the teams will be picked by the end of September so as to know who is in what team and what size of shirt they will need and I am pleased to say that everyone who took part this year has agreed to play next year. And I can also reveal that next year for the first time ever there will be a blind bowler taking part.

Thank you all for taking part so enthusiastically and look forward to a colourful 2022

Bill Giles

The final round of this years Friday league was held last night.

The league winners were Team I who won by 2 points.

The results and final table can be found here.

A few fascinating facts :-

There were a total of 66 matches.

There were 11,820 shots - it would have been 11,880 but one team was reduced to 2 players for one match so their opponents

only played 2 bowls each rather than 3.

There were 1201 scoring shots which is 10.61% of the total shots.

There were a total of 14 bonus points scored by 6 teams.

Every team won at least 1 match and there were only 2 draws.

Here's hoping next year is just as entertaining.

Potter Cup 29^th August 2021

Start Time 1pm

RULES OF PLAY

1 The games will be played in pairs – a team of 2 players with 3 bowls each.

2 There will be no trial ends and no visiting the head

3 There will be two groups of 4 teams and each team will play the other teams in their group ie 3 games in total.

4 Each game will be of 5 ends . Scoring in each game will be 1 point for each end won and 2 points for each game won. If the game ends in a draw, each team will be given 1 point.

5 If the scores are level after the 3 games are completed, the winners will be the team with the most shots – or if scores are still level, then most ends won. Should the scores still be level, an extra end will be played.

ORDER OF PLAY

Rink Round 1 Round 2 Round 3

2       1 v 2     1 v 3     2 v 3

3       3 v 4     2 v 4     1 v 4

4       5 v 6     5 v 7     6 v 7

5       7 v 8     6 v 8     5 v 8

The winning team from each group will play each other in the final game of 6 ends.

Dress code is white.

TEAMS

                   SKIPS                            LEAD

Team 1    John Walker                  Colin Feltham

Team 2   Terry Emberson             Keith Brooks

Team 3   Chris Shannon               Mike Zak

Team 4   Ron Duncan                   Norman Hyde

Team 5   Dave Holland                  John Hurley

Team 6   Jesse Matthews              Roger Blackburn

Team 7   Geoff Roynon                  Mike Sawyer

Team 8   Steve Silver                    Chris Trainer

Results and table from Mondays matches of the Friday League - quirky but true - can be found here.

This Friday, 27th, is the final round of this years league.

Why not come along, even if you are not playing, to celebrate or commiserate with this years players.

Presidents Day - 17^th August 2021

It was a typical August summer day - cloudy cool and breezy but dry and 32 members of Thame Bowls club arrived to play on President’s Day.

But before the main event started there was a short competition, called Narrow Gate to get everyone loosened up and this was won by Sharon Heafey.

Then the Bowls tournament commenced. There were 8 teams of 4 players divided into two groups of 4 teams with each team team playing the other teams in their group over 5 ends each. The winning team from each group to meet in the final game.

After the group games were completed, the two winning teams were :-

Group 1 - Gini Williams, Norman Hyde, Jan Sargeant and Bill Giles

Group 2 - Maureen Giles, Mike Zac, Janet Shannon and Jesse Matthews.

The final was played over 6 ends which Jesse Matthews team won 9 shots to 6.

After the tournament there was a big money raffle and a bottle of single malt whiskey, kindly donated by Sharon Heafey, was auctioned for £36.

This helped to bring the total donated to date to £226. I will keep this running until the sponsors evening on the 3^rd September. All the money raised will be given to the Oxford branch of Maggies which is a charity that offers support to cancer patients.

I would like to thank everyone who came along and played in the competition and for all who helped in any way to make President’s Day an enjoyable and happy occasion.

Thank you.

Gordon Taylor

Match results and table can be found here

Presidents Day – August 17^th2021

PROPOSED PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY

12.30pm Narrow Gate Competition

1.00 Group matches commence

3.00 Interval - tea and cakes provided

3.45 Group matches recommence to completion

4.30 Drinks break and raffle

Half the proceeds of the raffle will be given as prizes and the other half to my chosen charity which is Maggies Cancer Support in Oxford.

5.00 Grand Final

6.00 Presentation and close

Fee for the day : £5

RULES OF PLAY

1 The games will be played in rinks – a team of 4 players with 2 bowls each.

2 There will be no trial ends and no visiting the head

3 There will be two groups of 4 teams and each team will play the other teams in their group ie 3 games in total.

4 Each game will be of 5 ends . Scoring in each game will be 1 point for each end won and 2 points for each game won. If the game ends in a draw, each team will be given 1 point.

5 If the scores are level after the 3 games are completed, the winners will be the team with the most shots – or if scores are still level, then most ends won. Should the scores still be level, an extra end will be played.

ORDER OF PLAY

Rink     Round 1  Round 2   Round 3

  2         1 v 2        1 v 3        2 v 3

  3         3 v 4        2 v 4        1 v 4

  4         5 v 6        5 v 7        6 v 7

  5         7 v 8        6 v 8        5 v 8

The winning team from each group will play each other in the final game of 6 ends.

Please note that the rink number on which you play your second game will be the table number for refreshments.

Dress code is grey.

Teams

These are as follows:

1 Peter Gibbons, Mike Sawyer, Sharon Heafey and Barbara Waters

2 Val Sawyer, Roger Blackburn, Jane Kimber and Ray Plested

3 Chris Trainer, Alison Wilkinson, Ron Duncan and Jill Brooks

4 Maureen Giles, Mike Zak, Janet & Chris Shannon and Jesse Matthews

5 Gini Williams, Norman Hyde, Jan Sargeant and Bill Giles

6 David Hickman, Marion Keal, Maire Duncan and Dave Holland

7 Terri Blackburn, Roger Mackriell, Kevin Sharman and Deidre Page

8 Maggie Gibbons, Keith Brooks, Geoff Roynon and Frances Goodyear

Please note that the names are listed in order of play with the first name to be lead and the last skip.

My thanks again for signing up to play – very much appreciated.

Gordon

Match results and table can be found here

The Paul Heafey Cup

The final evening of three brought out the best of the Paul Heafey Cup (the annual competition for new or nearly new bowlers) with a close competition going right down to the wire on the additional play off end.

Team A, Jo Green and Ben Whitting had won both of their previous two matches and had accumulated 13 points. The team in second place after two games, Team C, Maggie Gibbons and Brian Munday, had 8 points and the team in third place, Team B, Ken Lewis and Frank Woolley, had 7 points.

Team A played Team D, Chris Trainer and Pat Munday, who had not won any points after two games and lost to them by 7 shots to nil giving Team D 7 points. Team C played Team B and lost to them by 11 shots to 1 shot, giving Team B 6 points.

This left both Team A and Team B on 13 points each and after counting back the winning number of ends and then shots (21 each) a sudden death additional end was arranged. Ken and Frank won with the last shot by Ken striking Jo’s wood and finishing inches from the jack.

It was hoped that all involved had both enjoyed and learned from the three sessions which were held in an informal and friendly fashion. Sharon Heafey (Paul’s widow) presented the trophy to Ken and Frank and the players repaired to the bar.

4.8.21

Match results and table can be found here

Paul Heafey was a much respected member of Thame Bowls Club for a number of years and was the League Captain for Thame men's team who won the Oxfordshire and District Division 4 title in 2017 by a record 19 points (winning all 12 matches). He was a great supporter of new bowlers and after his sudden and very sad death, the Club arranged for the Paul Heafey Cup, an annual competition for new and nearly new bowlers, to be set up in his honour. The competition has been held in 2018 and 2019 and this year is a pairs competition between 8 new members.

The players have been split into 4 teams :-

Team A Jo Green and Ben Whitting

Team B Ken Lewis and Frank Woolley

Team C Maggie Gibbons and Brian Munday

Team D Chris Trainer and Pat Munday.

Round 1 saw Teams A and C both score 7 points (Teams B and D sadly 0 points)

Round 2 the points were as follows: -

Team A Jo and Ben 6 points

Team B Ken and Frank 7 points

Team C Maggie and Brian 1 point

Team D Chris and Pat nul points

This leaves the League table after two matches as follows: -

Team A 13 points

Team C 8 points

Team B 7 points

Team D 0 points

Obviously Team D will need a miracle to win overall but they could still affect the final result next week and with 7 points at stake, A, C or B can still win. Team A will play Team D and Team B will play Team C.

The main thing is that all players enjoy and hopefully learn from the competition.

Mike Ralls

Match results and table can be found here

Round 1 points and a brief write up from Mike Ralls.

The first evening went well, I think (although the results may not have been to everyone's liking) and I haven't had any complaints so far!. My thanks go to Susan who came in at the last minute for Jo, who will be playing next week.

The points so far are as follows : -

Team A Susan/Jo & Ben 7 points

Team C Maggie & Brian 7 points

Team B Ken & Frank 0 points

Team D Chris & Pat 0 points

It is early days and with 7 points to play for each evening any one can still win. The trophy will be presented at the end of the third evening with photos taken for the Website.

So we will see you all next Tuesday, ready for another 5.45 pm start.

Regards, Mike.

The Friday league points scoring is as follows :-

Win = 3

Draw=2

Loss=1

Bonus point for any team scoring 15 shots or more in any 1 round irrespective of whether they win,lose or draw.

League table position is decided by total number of points including any bonus points.

If 2 or more teams have the same number of points then the team with the greatest difference of For and Against shots is higher up the table.

If teams have the same number of points and the same difference then it is the team with the highest number of shots for.

If they are all equal then it is the team with the most Bonus Points.

Match results and table can be found here

Write up of the competition is in the weekly match report here

Honours List updated and can be viewed here

The draw for the Walker Cup took place on Friday and can be found here.

Match results and table can be found here

Match results and table can be found here

Match results and table can be found here.

The Rink Diary has been updated with some new features. The main one is the ability to edit entries. Previously they had to be deleted and then re-entered.

There is a corresponding updated manual under the clickable links that are on every page.