La Posada’s bowling tour to the Alicante region in 2016 included a match at Monte Mar Bowls Club, where they were warmly welcomed and enjoyed some great hospitality. In a chat over lunch, email addresses were exchanged with a view to organising a return visit by Monte Mar to La Posada and this took place between 22nd - 26th May.

More than 30 bowlers from Monte Mar arrived on the Monday afternoon, staying for 4 nights at the El Tempranillo Hotel, opposite La Posada Parque. Morning and afternoon matches were arranged for the Tuesday and the Thursday at La Posada, with a visit to Saydo Bowls Club also arranged for the team for morning and afternoon matches there on the Wednesday.

Tuesday morning saw 4 x rinks matches played, with La Posada winning the session 3-1. Triples matches were played during a hot afternoon and, with many La Posada players playing twice on the day and the Monte Mar afternoon players being fresh from not having played in the morning, it was no surprise to see Monte Mar reverse the morning’s result, winning the afternoon session 3-1.

Their visit to Saydo B.C. on the Wednesday resulted in Monte Mar winning the morning triples matches 4-0 and the afternoon’s rinks matches by the same scoreline.

Back at La Posada on the Thursday, rinks matches were organised for both the morning and afternoon sessions. With a score of 4-4 carried over from the Tuesday, there was everything to play for. Some close matches resulted in a win for Monte Mar in the morning session by 3-1, so La Posada had it all to do in the afternoon.

On an even hotter day than the Tuesday and, again with La Posada having to field players twice on the day against fresh players from Monte Mar for the afternoon session, the odds were stacked heavily against La Posada. Incredibly, the heat seemed to have more of an adverse effect on the Monte Mar players and La Posada won the session 4-0, thus winning 9-7 overall on the 16 matches played during the two days.

Jeff & Janis Rowe from La Posada joined Monte Mar Club Captain, Ronnie Cairns and his players for a farewell meal in a local Alameda restaurant on the Thursday evening. Good food and a great time was enjoyed by all and Ronnie commented on how much the group had enjoyed their time at La Posada and thanked Jeff for all the help he had given in organising the visit.

Report by Jeff Rowe - Comp. Sec. La Posada B.C.