News

This years Paul Heafey cup was played on the evening of Tuesday 27^th August, 12 new bowlers took part in the event making up four triples' teams, this was split into 2 Leagues with team A  (Pauline Hewitt, Paul Spence, Trevor Watkins) verses Team B ( Sue Targus, Jeff Hewitt, Adrian Dite.) and team C ( Susie Shott, Nigal Legard, Andy Clark) Verses Team D (Wendy Mannix, Jim Targus, Phil Boyle).

The games where played over six ends , in league one team A beat Team B & in league two team D beat team C.

The final was won by team D (Wendy Mannix, Jim Targus, Phil Boyle)

This competition was played on very nice warm sunny evening with lots of laughter and banter but quickly became very competitive. I had great comments afterwards from all players to say that they had enjoyed there very first competition. 

A big thanks to Chris & Ian and all who gave up their Tuesdays to help all the new bowlers over the recent weeks.

rgds,

Adrian Wilcox

Competitions  Secretary.

 Some action from the league games

 The finalists

The winners

 Jim, Wendy and Phil

 All the teams

Potter Cup – Sunday 18^th August 2024.

One of our oldest competitions, the Potter Cup was first played for in 1946 when it seems Mr E M Potter won his own cup to start off proceedings and by 1973 the format was established as a men’s pairs event. This year’s competition was played on Sunday 18^th August in front of a good number of spectators, in lovely weather and on a freshly mowed green which bowled beautifully.

Philippa Feltham, Diane Mackriell and Terri Blackburn helped Chris Shannon to organise the event, and due to a few late absences Chris also bowled to make up the numbers.

So, a small, but select group of 10 bowlers contested four short matches to decide who was going to be in the final. Roger Blackburn and Tom Devaney engineered a storming 10-1 win in their third match which propelled them into the final against Chris Shannon and Ken Lewis. The final was closely contested, but a four shot gain on the third end proved sufficient to allow Chris and Ken victory by a small margin overall.

Your committee thanks all who took part on the day, the members who watched and supported the bowling and of course those mentioned above who helped to make the event a success on the day. It would be good to have more bowlers take part in our one day club competitions going forward to uphold long standing traditions.

THAME SPORTS CLUB

NAMING OF THE CLUB BAR ON AUGUST 2^ND 2024

Gordon Taylor gave a brief speech, which is detailed below, for the formal naming of the club bar.

Hello everyone. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Gordon Taylor , vice chair of the Bowls Club and currently chair of Thame Sports Club Management Committee. The Sports Club embraces the playing sections with responsibility for maintaining the site and the pavilion. I have been chair since the Annual General Meeting in December 2023 when there was a discussion and agreement that there should be recognition of the late Peter Bozier’s contribution to the pavilion rebuild project. At the time of the rebuild , Peter was chair of the Sports Club Management Committee and gave many hours of his time to preparing and submitting applications for grants from local authorities and sports bodies to enable the rebuild project to proceed – one notable example being an application to South Oxfordshire District Council which resulted in them making a grant of £240,000. This represented a significant proportion of the total grants received. Peter’s contribution to the rebuild programme has been described to me by one or two long standing tennis members who knew Peter well as “ truly stupendous “ and a “ sterling effort”.

Consequently at the 2023 Annual General Meeting, it was decided unanimously that the Sports Club bar should be named “ Bozier’s Bar” in Peter’s memory. As often happens with these projects, it has taken longer to complete than I would have wanted but at last all is ready and I am delighted to invite John Ansell, a long standing tennis member, to formally name the bar.

Thank you

Whitsun Cup - 31st July (Just a tad late)

As I heard someone say last week I think I am going to change my weather provider, the first date for the Whitsun Cup was postponed due to heavy rain & cold weather, now we have to play in 30 degree heat (cant win!) We only had 16 players so I divided this in to four teams of 4, due to the heat I reduced the game to just 3 games of 5 ends, with the top scoring teams playing off against each other in a final.

The final was between Team B Roger Blackburn, Chris Roberts, June Greene and Ken Lewis, against Team C John Holmes, Jenny Reed, Keith Brooks and Tony Battaglia. Val Sawyer was in Team C until the Final, but she was feeling the heat so Jenny stepped in to help the team. I think Val was pacing herself as she was off to a run the marathon at the OLYMPICS and a Disco in the evening (sensible).

The final was won by Team B June Greene, Chris Roberts, Ken Lewis and Roger Blackburn.

Thank you to all that took part on this very hot day, thanks to Phil for doing the bar, and Keith for helping to lay out the green.

Adrian Wilcox

The winners - Roger, June, Ken and Chris (Mike Zak was photo bombing in the background)

The finalists - Roger, June, John, Keith, Tony, Ken, Jenny and Chris.

NEW YEAR AT THE BOWLS CLUB

Approx. 35 club members and their guests enjoyed a great evening at the club to celebrate and see in the New Year. Unfortunately due to illness our President Les Canfield could not attend and Norman passed on his apologies. For a difference this year live music was provided by Father and Daughter duo Cahoot from Chinnor who sang and played a good selection of music which suited the members. Father Steve had developed a severe sore throat that afternoon but carried on bravely. One of the first numbers they played was Love is all around by Wet Wet Wet which brought Paul and Linda first to the dance floor as it's their special number. Tables had been arranged to allow a generous area for dancing which was certainly needed later on with other members taking to the dance floor.

The generous buffet was provided by Yvette Raisen from the Windmill Café in Chinnor and included finger sandwiches, spring rolls and lots of other picky bits and when you think the whole evening including food and music only cost £10 you realise what excellent value the evening was.

During the evening, a raffle was organised with lots of prizes donated by club members and £170 was raised for club funds.

On evenings like this it makes you realise that not only do we have a terrific new club house and excellent bowling facilities but also a good social club for the benefit of all members.

Evenings like this do not just happen and thanks must go to Jo for organising the whole event for the second year and to Phil and his team of Ray, Barbara, Jo, Barry, and Roger behind the bar. The bar prices were normal club prices and as competitive with anything else in town but also what helps member’s pockets is being able to buy full size bottles of wine and prosecco.

As midnight approached everyone took to the dance floor to see in the New Year in style and to sing Auld Lang Syne which then brought the club into its 100^th year.

Ken Bennell & Melv Warner

P.S. some photos here - you'll need to be logged in to see them.

If you have any that you would like to add please let Phil know.

Last Friday night’s Quiz Night was a great night out for all who came.  Sue and Phil Boyle were unable to host the quiz as usual because Sue’s mother suffered a stroke last weekend and was in the JR.  Sue and Phil have been spending much of their time there but were kind enough to compile the questions which Jo presented immaculately, like she’d been doing it forever.  

Of course, Jo was ably assisted by Barry together with their daughter Carolyn who kept tabs on the scores and leaderboard.

The winning team for the 2nd (or is it the 3rd?) time, lead by Chris, and of course featuring quiz queen Catherine Jones donated their prizes to the team that came second and are pictured below with Terri in the foreground. 

Phil and Ian were behind the bar all evening with help from Peter who was also busy successfully seeking new sponsors. Chris and Ray Lewin chased around selling numbers on the raffle board.  Chris, young Jacob, Barbara and Ray set the room up and between them Bob and Jean Miller cleaned tables, stacked chairs and vacuumed afterwards.  Phil provided the PA system.  Apologies if anyone who helped has been missed out! 

A good mix of members and friends paid ‘entrance fees’ which less the cost of winners’ prizes raised £270.  The raffle less cost of prizes raised a further £70 and the bar was pretty busy all night.

Around £50 of raffle winnings was kindly donated to Sue and Phil's chosen charity, the Stroke Association, and the Bowls Club donated a further £100 from the night’s takings in recognition of Sue and Phil’s work in putting the Quiz together for us.

A roaring success.

In other news, Jo has secured Oracle Ear Care as a sponsor of our Christmas Social on the 15th December and over the weekend the last available 300 club number was taken, so we now have 300 numbers with names against them ready for the bumper Christmas Draw!

As we waited in anticipation for the invited visually impaired visitors to arrive at the club the sun came out and continued throughout the day. The annual event, cancelled during COVID, is a special day in the calendar and Saturday 30 September 2023 was no exception. The green was in superb condition, and was then prepared for blind bowlers under the supervision of Norman Hyde and all was ready for the off. The players were placed in pairs and under the watchful eye of the helpers played through until one o’clock when we all sat down to a buffet lunch supplied by The Windmill Cafe in Chinnor. Further games continued after lunch until 3 pm when everyone came into the clubhouse for tea and cakes. President Les Canfield then handed out club pens to all the players before Devante and Danni, who organised the bowlers, were presented with a medal each for their efforts. A great day was had by all and I , as Chairman of the Club, was deeply proud of all the Thame Bowls members who stepped in to help on the green and in the clubhouse. Particular mention must be made to all the ladies who served the teas, the men who manned the bar and those who helped on the green, and who can forget Keith Brooks who diligently looked after a few ladies who wanted to try bowls out for the first time?

Thanks to everyone who made the day such a success.
Bill Giles

Paul Heafey Cup 2023

When we thought the season was over after a top-class finals weekend, up pops the Paul Heafey cup on Monday evening to yet again entertain us with excellent bowling by this year’s newcomers.

We had 6 new starters which we divided into two triples, for a game of 10 ends.

Team 1 was Chris, Colin & Jane v Team 2 which was Phillippa, Paul & Jan. I have never seen the jack picked up and taken back so many times, I thought we were going to run out of chalk. The score after 7 ends was 8-2 and was beginning to look like a run away win for Chris, Colin & Jane but on end 8 Philippa’s team scored 6 so now the game is even. Philippa’s team then scored 2 on end nine & 1 on end ten.

Just goes to show never give up on a game. This was a very nice game for the observer, a joy to watch, nice to see we have excellent players coming through to make our teams stronger.

Adrian Wilcox,

Competitions Secretary.

The finalists - Chris, Phillippa, Jan, Paul, Colin and Jane with the team mascot Jack.

Sharon Heafey presents the trophy to the winning team of Phillippa, Paul and Jan.

I know you may have heard me say this over the weekend, but I observed some top-quality bowling in all the finals competitions, I am sure there were some England selectors in the crowd on Sunday.

All the finalists had all deserved to be there, and over the last few weeks I had seen many semi-finals games that would also be worthy of any final.

Even if you did not make a final you should all be proud of the way you played in the competition with everybody’s game improving greatly, we are very lucky to have a great depth of players to choose from when it comes to Men’s, Ladies, & mixed games whether in friendlies or competitions.

The weather was excellent, even if a bit too hot, many thanks to Chris for making sure that everybody had plenty to drink with cold water & ice cream available, and plenty of cake.

Thank you to all that helped make it a great weekend, bar staff keeping us all oiled, ladies that sorted out the cake and tea’s, thanks to Les for marking my game, and presenting all the trophies. And of course a very special thanks to Chris and all of his team who were on the green at silly o'clock cutting and preparing it before each day's matches.

It makes me feel that I want to do it all again next year.

With thanks,

Adrian Wilcox

Competitions Secretary.

The winners of each competition were :-

Ladies Pomeroy Cup - Sharon Heafey

Ladies Pairs Ford Cup - Ann Ashfield & Maire Duncan

Ladies Honour Cup - Gini Williams

Ladies 2 Wood Singles - Sharon Heafey

Men's Coronation Cup - David White

Men's Jubilee Handicap - Ray Plested

Men's Victory Pairs - Ray Plested & Melv Warner

Men's Walker Cup - Geoff Roynon

Men's Taylor Cup - David White

Michael Jones Cup - Adrian Wilcox

Married Pairs Josey Cup - Janet & Chris Shannon

Men's & Ladies Pairs Warwick Cup - Deirdre Page & Ray Plested

Lightfoots Cup - Ian Rutherford

A few action shots from the day - we will put a more complete gallery of photos on the website after Presentation evening on the 7th October

Janet in full flow

Maybe we should have a prize for the best guess at what is going on here?

It did rain a bit but that didn't deter the hardy spectators.

Another great day of bowling in the Potter Cup on Sunday 27^th August. 10 teams of men’s pairs where divided in to 2 leagues of 5, each team played 4 games of five ends, scored on ends won and total shots per team. The winners from each league then went on to play in the final, which was contested by Ian Rutherford & Keith Brooks verses Ray Plested & Roger Blackburn over six ends, with Ian & Keith coming out the winners. Keith as normal, won £ 5 in the raffle whilst he was playing in the final - typical.

Its getting harder to pick balanced teams for this type of game, with the quality of bowlers we have in the club now.

Thanks to Phil, Sharon & Jo who gave so much help today.

Adrian Wilcox

Competitions Secretary

Finalists Ian Rutherford, Keith Brooks, Ray Plested and Roger Blackburn

Winners Ian Rutherford and Keith Brooks are presented with the trophy by President Les Canfield

Whitsun cup played on Sunday 28^th May.

Due to a higher level of interest this year there was a change to the format of this competition.

We had 24 entries, this was formatted into 6 teams of four bowlers, the 6 six teams where then divided into two leagues of three teams.

Each team played the other two teams in their league over 7 ends for each game, the winner from each league then played each other in a 7 end final.

The final was played by team 3 Alison Wilkinson, Mike Zak, Ray Lewin, (Byron Harvey who shared a game with Ray Lewin), Dave Holland as skip, and team 6 Gini Williams, Colin French, Jan Sargeant, Heather Hallchurch as skip.

The final was won by the Heather Hallchurch’s team, 7 shots to 5.

The weather was just right not too hot and a little breeze, a lot of banter which made the afternoon very enjoyable from the comments I received.

Thanks very much to Chris & his team especially Barry Green, for giving us a excellent green to bowl on, thanks also to Barry and Jo for running the bar, and to Phil Reed in helping me with a spreadsheet to help format the game, and help with the card scoring.

Adrian Wilcox

Competitions Secretary

Bill Giles OBE

Chairman, Thame Bowls Club