BOWLS

On Sunday,21st August, Warwick Boat Club hosted the finals of their annual Warwick Town Triples competition at the club. Sixteen local teams from within the Warwick district had entered and after some fiercely contested games throughout the season, only four triples now remained. The two semi final matches were played at the start of the day with a team from Warwick Boat Club drawn in each, against Avenue and Snitterfield respectively.

The Warwick Boat Club team of Diane Harvey, Peter Boardman and Mary Wheildon, the current trophy holders, were up against a formidable triple of Richard Freeston and David and Debbie Bloxham. Despite strong play from the WBC team they were no match for the strength of the Snitterfield trio who ran out winners, knocking out the champions 20 shots to 5.

In the second semi final, The Avenue team of Dawn and Paul Chapman and skip Barry Connolly started strongly against the other Warwick Boat Club team of Jacqui Ashley, Chris Hurst and skip, David Hurst and were soon 8 shots ahead after 12 ends. But undeterred, the WBC team came back strongly to level the match 14 shots all going in to the final end. This was a tense finish with the umpire having to be called to measure for shot before Warwick Boat Club were declared the winners.

After lunch had been enjoyed by players and spectators, the two remaining teams took to the green for the final. Both teams made a steady start and were level after 3 ends. However, Snitterfield took 6 shots on the fourth end and continued to capitalise on this by winning seven of the next eight ends taking their score to 19- 6 after thirteen ends. Despite a late rally from Warwick Boat Club, increasing their score to 12 shots, Snitterfield held on to become the eventual winners 20 shots to 12.

The Mayor of Warwick, Mr Parminder Singh Birdi, joined the club captain and guests for afternoon tea before presenting the prizes to the finalists and the trophy to the Champions, Snitterfield. The day was declared a resounding success by all who attended and thanks were expressed to the organizing committee for their hard work.

After what had been a couple of weeks of unusual conditions where temperatures had at times approached 40ºC, all competitors knew it was going to be difficult playing conditions at Stratford Bowling Club who were this years hosts of the County Finals Weekend. The Ladies Triples Final was between Caroline Edwards, Anita Cowdrill and Tracey Turner-Smith (Royal Leamington Spa) playing our own Boat Club Ladies and last years winners, Jacqui Ashley, Chris Hurst and Mary Wheildon. The teams were fairly evenly matched for most of the game 11 all on 11 ends when WBC started to pull away and led 16-11 at the 13th end but RLS dug deep and managed to turn the tables to win by two shots 20-18.

The afternoon featured the Junior Pairs between Ellie Hurst (Warwick Boat Club) with Hannah Smith (Welford) and Lily-Mae Adams with Emily Kernick (both Sherwood Park). Again they were fairly evenly matched with Ellie and Hannah leading by one shot at 10 ends 11-10, after a gripping second half of the match with some great bowling from the youngsters Lily-Mae and Emily pulled back to win by just 1 shot on the last end winning 15-16.

Ellie Hurst and Hannah Smith runners-up in the Warwickshire Junior Pairs

As summer drew to a close, the eyes of the bowls world were once again falling on Royal Leamington Spa for the prestigious Bowls England National Finals. This festival of sport is the culmination of a player or teams efforts over the previous five months. Leamington Spa Bowls club fresh from hosting the Lawn Bowls competition at the Commonwealth Games just a few weeks before –and provides the stage for 18 days of fierce competition. The first day was Thursday 25th August and saw Jacqui Ashley, Mary Wheildon and Chris Hurst from Warwick Boat Club representing Warwickshire for the second year in a row in the Ladies Triples. They were drawn against a very strong Surrey Triple the Warwickshire girls had a lot of support from fellow bowlers from the Boat Club and gave there very best against a very confident and skillful Surrey team, Surrey won on the day 22:10

The Commonwealth Games is the premier event in World Bowls and for ten days in early August 227 competitors from 24 countries entered teams and competed across 11 events for the medals at Royal Leamington spa as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. Bowls has been part of the Commonwealth Games since the inaugural event in 1930 (then called the British Empire Games held in Hamilton Canada)

Six representatives from the Boat Club volunteered at the Victoria Park venue. Chris Hurst, Di Wood and Ken Butler were field of play volunteers and were seen a few times on the TV coverage sitting at the ends of the rinks turning scoreboards. Dave Hurst, Christopher Mordaunt and Trisha Macfarlane were ‘flash quote reporters’ interviewing competitors straight after their matches and supplying quotes for the Games News Service.

The ten sunny days of competition drew excellent crowd providing a wonderful atmosphere that those who were there will never forget. To quote Amy Pharaoh the silver medalist from Lincolnshire who won her medal in the ladies pairs beaten by the Australian pair with the last bowl