This took place at Santa Maria Bowls Club, near Marbella, over 3 days from 22nd November. It is a well established competition, dating back to 1993, and involves teams of 4 players representing their Clubs, playing one another over 18 ends on a knockout basis. This season La Posada entered 3 teams, 2 of which unfortunately suffered first round defeats.

However, our team of Julie Banfield, Ted Holmes, Allen Gateshill and Jeff Rowe won their first round match against a Don Pablo team on the first morning and went on to win their second round match in the afternoon against a Miraflores team. That resulted in the team returning on the second day to play a quarter final match against a well fancied team from Lauro Bowls Club, who currently lead the Tigers League with a 100% record. After a slow start, being 1-6 behind after 4 ends, our team started to get into the match and, after 14 ends, the score was tied at 14-14. The 15th end resulted in us going into the lead for the first time in the match, and we held on to win by 4 shots.

So, back again on the third morning to play the semi final, against an experienced team from Don Pablo. Again we got off to a poor start, dropping 0-5 behind on the very first end! But, we kept plugging away and, with just one end to play, we held a 3 shot lead. Julie put one of her 2 bowls very close which meant the rest of the team just needed to cover it, which they did. Our opponents couldn’t move Julie’s shot bowl and we ended up winning by 4 shots.

The afternoon’s final saw our team up against one of the home sides from Santa Maria who, quite understandably, had all the support from the watching spectators. Yet again, we got off to a bad start, losing the first 5 ends, although by only 1 shot on each. Still, that left us 0-5 down and, by the end of the 8th end we were 3-12 behind. With nothing to lose at that point, the team seemed to relax and played some great bowls, going into a 1 shot lead at 16-15 by the end of the 15th end. With the Santa Maria team winning the next end by 1 shot, the scores were level at 16-16 with just 2 ends to play, a real nail biting situation. The La Posada team managed to hold their nerve better than the Santa Maria team though, picking up 2 shots on each of the final 2 ends, thus winning the match, and the title, 20-16, a great comeback win.

The President’s Fours is a very prestigious competition in the Malaga Provincial Bowls schedule. Although we have reached the semi finals on a couple of occasions in previous years, to get to the final this year was a real achievement and to go on and actually win it is a real feather in the cap for La Posada Bowls Club. Congratulations to all the team.