County v Gloucestershire – Sunday 15th September 2019

This home fixture against Gloucestershire was the first leg of this year’s “Two Shires Tophy” competition.  – the second leg will take place on Sunday 8th December. Worcestershire won this opening match of the season by 22 shots to 18,  scoring 227 shots with Gloucestershire scoring 195 –  Worcestershire won nine out of the sixteen individual games played.

Session  1.  There were narow defeats for both Singles players with Cayman losing 12-13 and Johnathon losing 12-14. In the pairs, Richard and Jim went into the lead in the fifth end, maintained this lead thereafter to run out winning by 15 shots to 11. In the other Pairs match, Terry and Malcolm went into the lead in the 8th end and in a hard fought contest went on to win by 15 shots to 13.

Session  2.  Both Triples teams lost. In the Fours keith’s team led throughout to run out winning by 11 shots to 6. Terry’s team were behind for the first 7 ends, level after the 8th end, and with 10 shots off three of the last four ends of the match, won by 16 shots to 12.

Session  3.  Cayman lost his afternoon Singles match but Johnathon in a strong performance won his .  Johnathon made four shots from each of the ends 3, 8, and 9 which was a major contribution to his 20-14 win. In a game of two parts Richard and Jim made an incedible start to their afternoon Pairs match.They dashed forward into an incredible 15-0 lead after the 5th end. The next 10 ends saw them score only an additional 5 shots, during which time their Gloucestershire opponents scored 15. This was not sufficient, however, to prevent Richard and Jim  winning by 20 shots to 15.  Although Jenny and and Malcolm, in their afternoon Pairs match, won 8 of the 15 ends played, including 5 of the last 7 ends, they were narrowly beaten 12 shots to 13.

Session  4.  A great win for Robin’s Triples team. Their opponents won only two ends ( a total of 2 shots), with Robin’s team rampant to clock up 26 shots for a 26-2 win. In a similar performance, Keith’s Triples team accumulated a very handsome 23 shots with their opponents scoring 3 shots off two ends. Terry’s Fours team had a strong and consistent performance scoring 16 shots off 10 of the 11 end match. This restricted Gloucestershire to scoring one shot off the sole end that they won.

Some very interesting results today but well done to Worcestershire in winning what was a closely run contest.

Summary of the results below ;

 

County v Gloucestershire Sunday 15th September 2019

The County’s first match of the season is against Gloucestershire on Sunday the 15th September and will be at Bromsgrove  – 9.30 am for a 10.00 am start. This match is the first of two legs to be played aginst Gloucestershire for the Two Shires Trophy. The squad for this match is set out below:

 

County Over 55s Pairs Competition.

This year’s pairs competition will take place at Bromsgrove Indoor Bowls Centre on Sunday 29th September. This will be the qualifying event for the National Finals which will take place next year. Players wishing to compete are asked to complete the proforma document shown below and inform either Richard Payne or Richard Rose of their intentions.

ESMBA – Summer Club Championship

The Summer Club Championship took place this year at the Solihull Indoor Bowls Centre on Sunday 7th July. In addition to being a championship competition in it’s own right, the event also acts as a qualifying round for the TLH Top Club finals held in Torquay, the next event being in May next year.

Fourteen clubs entered this year’s competition, including one from Worcestershire – Churchill and Blakedown Short Mat Bowls Club, with ten clubs proceeding to next year’s finals. Churchill and Blakedown have consistently qualified for the Torquay event but this year failed to do so. This was a great disappointment to the squad which consisted of – Richard Rose, Terry Clifford, Alan Walters, Trish Clifford, Sandra Felton, Dave Grove, Rob Franklin and Malcolm Saunders.

Churchill and Blakedown were drawn to play against “Magic Circle” ( West Midlands ), “Carey” ( Dorset ), and “Great Houghton” ( Northamptonshire ). In the match against Magic Circle, Richard had a great start winning his Singles match 10-7. Richard and Terry drew their pairs match 10-10, but both Fours and Triples teams lost their matches. There was no success in the matches against Carey. In the matches against Great Houghton, both the Singles and Fours lost their matches, but there was a win in the Pairs ( Dave and Alan ) by 10 shots to 9. In the triples match Trish, Sandra and Malcolm had a comfortable win by 12 shots to 4.

Overall Chuchill and Blakedown scored 74 shots with 121 against.

ESMBA / TLH Top Club Finals – 4th/5th May 2019

Sixteen top clubs from across England competed in the ESMBA / TLH event held in Torquay. Churchill and Blakedown SMB Club was the only club from Worcestershire competeing, having qualified for the event in July 2018. The club’s team consisted of  –  Terry Clifford / Richard Rose / Sandra Felton / Trish Clifford / Alan Walters / Dave Grove /  Rob Franklin and Malcolm Saunders.

In the group stage of the tournament Churchill and Blakedown was drawn against strong opposition from clubs located in Cornwall, Wast Midlands and Dorset. Churchill and Blakedown were disapppointed not to have won one of the individual games against the Cornwall and West Midlands clubs, but fared much better against against the Hazelbury Bryan team from Dorset.. The Fours team ( Trish/Rob/Malcom/Terry ) won their game, as did the Triples team ( Dave/Sandra/Alan ). Rob and Malcolm drew their Pairs game. The team finished the day in much better spirits but failed to qualify for the main trophy knockout series. The team were drawn against ” Magic Circle ” from the West Midlands in the quarter final ” Plate” knockout series. Churchill and Blakedown lost narrowly in the Singles and Fours games. The Triples team also lost, but Malcolm and Terry won their Pairs game 9-6.

Having had a disappointing tournament the  club is looking forward to regaining their winning ways when the qualifying fixture for next year’s tournement is announced later this year.