2019 News

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Four disciplines in this year’s Championships were held during the last week of March. They comprised the Novice Singles (only open to entries from members who have never before won a bowls singles tournament); the Ladies Pairs, the Men’s Pairs and the Mixed Pairs. The Novice Singles saw Doug Pritchett and Dennis Hughes winning through to the final. After coming close to going out in the first round, Doug ended up winning the event. He took a 9-1 lead in the early stages and never relinquished that lead, going on to win comfortably by 23 shots to 12. After a round robin event in the Ladies Singles, the final featured Maureen Fewings and Julie Banfield up against Margaret Baxter and Jean Dickson. This turned out to be fairly one sided affair, with the more experienced pair of Maureen and Julie leading by 18 shots to 3 when Margaret and Jean conceded the match after 13 ends. In the Men’s Pairs, there was an extremely close semi-final between Ken Crofts & Dennis Hughes and Nigel Snaith & Georg Hamblin. After the scheduled 18 ends, the score was tied at 21 - 21, which meant they would have to play a sudden death extra end to decide the match. Ken & Dennis managed to get the one shot they needed and progressed to the final, where they came up against Stuart Brickley and Mike Banfield. With the scores level after 4 ends, Stuart & Mike then took the lead and went on to win by 22 shots to 10. The Mixed Pairs final saw previous winners, Maureen Fewings and Georg Hamblin, up against Janis Rowe and Ken Crofts, and what a tense and exciting match it turned out to be. After 13 ends and with only 5 to play, Maureen & Georg seemed to have the match under their control, leading 14-9. However, Janis & Ken hung on in there and picked up one shot on each of those last 5 ends, leveling the score at 14-14 after the scheduled 18 ends. So, a sudden death extra end was needed to decide the final. After Maureen had bowled against Ken, team Maureen and Georg were one shot up. It was then down to Georg and Janis. Georg put another bowl into the count and Janis found herself two down with only her last bowl to play to try to save the match, and what a bowl it was. In it came, picked up the jack and rolled it back towards two of hers and Ken’s bowls and, suddenly, from being 2 shots down, they were 3 up! Georg was unable to get close with his last bowl, leaving Janis & Ken as the winners of a great final. The final two disciplines in this year’s Championships, the Ladies and Men’s Singles, were held over 3 days in mid April. In the Ladies event, it came as no surprise to see the two most experienced players, Maureen Fewings and Julie Banfield, winning their way fairly comfortably through to meet each other in the final. After Maureen had won the first 3 ends and taken a 5-0 lead, Julie then picked up her game, winning the next 7 ends to go ahead 15-5. Although Maureen managed to rally somewhat, that deficit proved too much for her to overcome and Julie ran out the winner by 21 shots to 12. In the Men’s event, last year’s Novice Singles winner, Nigel Snaith, and defending champion, Jeff Rowe, each won their way through 3 matches to get to the final, and what a classic of a match it turned out to be. Nigel took an early lead of 6-1, only for Jeff to level things up at 6-6. Nigel went ahead again at 11-6, but Jeff came back to level again at 11-11. Jeff got in front for the first time at 15-12, but Nigel then picked up 4 shots in one end to go back in front at 16-15. Nigel stretched his lead to 19-16 and had the winning post of 21 shots firmly in his sights. However, Jeff got it back to 19-17 and, on the next end held 4 shots, and the match, leaving Nigel with one bowl left to save it. And save it he did, rolling in to cut it down from 4 to Jeff to just 1. With Nigel now holding a slender lead of 19-18, what turned out to be the final end saw some top class bowling from both players. 7 out of the 8 bowls played surrounded the jack, close enough to be covered by the size of a tea towel, but it was 3 of Jeff’s bowls which turned out to be the closest, giving him the 3 shots he needed to win 21-19. What a match! Photos to support report: 1. Novice Singles Winner - Doug Pritchett 2. Ladies Pairs Winners - L to R: Maureen Fewings & Julie Banfield 3. Men’s Pairs Winners - L to R: Stuart Brickley & Mike Banfield 4. Mixed Pairs Winners - L to R: Ken Crofts & Janis Rowe 5. Men’s & Ladies Singles Winners and Finalists - L to R: Nigel Snaith, Jeff Rowe, Julie Banfield, Maureen Fewings Report by: Jeff Rowe Photos by: Tony Parsons & Shelley Greenwood 25th April 2019

With Captains selected and their respective team members drawn out of the hat, 8 teams competed over two days in January for the Club Triples Challenge Cup and Plate. The first round winners went through to play one another in the semi finals for the Cup, whilst the losers went on to play against each other for the Plate. Two first round matches pitched husbands against wives, with Nigel Snaith’s team winning 26-8 against Nita’s and Jeff Rowe’s team winning 24-10 against Janis’s team. In the other two matches, Dave Way’s team won 25-18 against Georg Hamblin’s and Mike Banfield’s team beat Dennis Hughes’s team in a close match, 21-19. So, the semi finals of the Cup saw Jeff’s team drawn against Mike’s, with Jeff’s team winning 17-8, and Nigel’s team drawn against Dave’s, a match which was all square playing the last end. It came down to a measure for shot to decide it, which narrowly went to Nigel’s team who won 11-10. The semi finals of the Plate were between Georg and Nita’s teams, with Georg’s team winning 13-8 and Janis and Dennis’s teams, with Janis’s team coming out on top in that one 15-11. Both finals were played in cold and windy conditions. In the final of the Cup, Nigel’s team, comprising Margaret Baxter and Tony Parsons, took on Jeff’s team which included Ken Crofts and Brian Bowen. With just 1 shot between the teams after 4 ends, Nigel then picked up 4 shots for his team with a trail on the jack and that proved decisive as they held on to that lead, running out winners 14-10. In the final of the Plate, Janis, Carolyn Hogarth and Tony Grainger played against Georg, Brian Gowthorpe and Les Springham. Janis’s team got off to an early lead and never looked like relinquishing that as the match progressed. They went on to win comfortably 17-9. Well done to all who took part, with special congratulations to the respective winners, pictured here.

For the 7th year in succession, the bowling group from Portugal visited La Posada during the second week of June to play against us for the annual Challenge Trophy, which they “nicked” from us last year with an overall win by the narrowest of margins, 7 matches to 6. Various formats were played over 4 sessions during the course of the week. The first session, on the Monday, comprised 2 triples and 2 pairs matches. The session ended all square at 2-2, with both teams each winning 1 triples and 1 of the pairs matches. The final session, held on the Friday, comprised 4 triples matches. This session also ended 2-2, both teams each winning 2 of the matches played. It was the second and third sessions, held on the Tuesday, which decided matters. At the suggestion of Bowls Algarve, a variation of the normal Pairs format was played - “Australian Pairs”, where the Skips and Lead bowlers take it in turns to play first on alternate ends. What a great suggestion that turned out to be for La Posada as they won 5 and drew 1 of the 6 matches played! So, the final result saw an overall win for La Posada by 9.5 to 4.5 matches and thus the trophy was regained. It was presented by the Bowls Algarve Captain, Frances, to our Captain, Georg, during the farewell get-together in the bar on the final evening of their visit. It was a great week with good company and the matches were played in the right spirit, as usual. We look forward to their visit again next year, when we’ll be doing our best to retain that trophy.

For this year’s 4 day La Posada Triples Challenge Tournament, the format was changed from a straight knock-out competition to one where the teams were drawn into groups of 4, who played one another within their groups in round-robin matches over the first 3 days, with the group winners going forward to compete in the knock-out semi finals on the last day. With only 12 entries however, only 3 groups of 4 could be formed and the 4 semi finalists would be made up of the 3 group winners plus the best placed second team across the 3 groups. 2 points were awarded for a win and 1 point each for a draw in the round-robin group matches. All teams in the 3 groups played one match each on day 1, with the teams in groups A and C returning on day 2 to play their second and third matches. In group A, Jeff Turner’s team from Mijas qualified for the semi finals, with 3 wins and 6 points. In group C, Barbara Land’s team from Santa Maria qualified with 2 draws and 1 win, giving them 4 points. The best placed second team at this point was Jeff Rowe’s from La Posada, on 4 points from group A, after 2 wins. Returning on day 3 were the teams in group B and, after their second round of matches, any 2 from 3 could still qualify, with two teams on 3 points and one on 2. Their third matches resulted in defeats for the teams on 3 points and a win for the team on 2, led by John Wilson from Mijas, who therefore qualified as group winners on 4 points. With the runners-up in groups B & C both on 3 points, that left Jeff Rowe’s team as qualifiers for the semi finals as best placed second team. So, the morning of day 4 featured the semi finals, with Jeff Turner, Pat Baker and Steve Ward up against John Wilson, Sheila Wilson and Mick Devine, an all Mijas affair. With 3 wins from 3 in the group stages, Jeff’s team were the favourites on paper to win this one but it resulted in a comfortable win for John’s team, who were always in front, by 22-7. The other semi final was between the Santa Maria team of Barbara Land, Tony Land and Mary Dethridge and the La Posada team of Jeff Rowe, Georg Hamblin and Maureen Fewings. There was nothing to choose between the two teams in the early stages, but on the 6th end, Jeff’s team picked up 4 shots to take a lead which they never relinquished, running out the winners by 15-12. So, the final saw John Wilson’s team from Mijas up against Jeff Rowe’s La Posada team. Jeff’s team had the better of the early stages, leading 8-1 after 5 ends. John’s team then started to peg back that lead and, at the halfway point, were only one behind at 8-7. Jeff’s team then proceeded to win the next 5 ends and, after picking up 5 shots on the 14th end, held a commanding lead of 20-7. Two ends later, John’s team conceded the match with the score standing at 23-9 against them. So, the tournament resulted in a “home win” for the La Posada team. It was played in good weather (for a change) and in a great spirit, and all the competitors appeared to enjoy the new format. Photos to support the report: 1. Finalists - L to R: John Wilson, Mick Devine, Maureen Fewings, Sheila Wilson, Georg Hamblin, Jeff Rowe 2. Winners - L to R: Georg Hamblin, Maureen Fewings, Jeff Rowe Report by: Jeff Rowe, Competition Organiser. Photos by: Tony Parsons 20th March 2019