Around the bowls clubs

The new ladies champion is Margaret Atkins who played exceptionally well to beat defending champion Carol Watson. With the scores even after 8 ends Carol opened up a slender 15-11 lead only for Margaret to peg her back to 15-15. There was nothing between them after that and with the score locked at 20-20 a telling conversation shot from Margaret earned her the title.

In the men’s championship Keith Holman got the better of Tom Palmer with a 21-9 win. Keith took control of the game early to lead 10-3 and although Tom staged a mini revival to reduce the deficit to 13-8 Keith pulled away again to seal the victory.

There were consolation wins for Tom and Carol, though, as both competed in 4 finals each.

Other double winners on the day were Terry Hughes (2 bowl singles and mixed pairs), Alan Gardiner (men’s backbone and Butfoy singles) and Shirley Foxwell (ladies backbone and Betty McMillan triples).

Good weather blessed Burgess Hill as they held their Finals last weekend, where the was some good bowling over the two day days.

Defending Ladies Champion Joan Howson held on to her title by overcoming Karen Myles 21–7 but no such luck for defending Men’s Champion Mick Christian who had to hand his crown to Colin Bailey after a close match leaving Colin the winner 21 – 16.

As is traditional the finals of the popular Edward and Gladys Rowland competitions were part of the proceedings and saw the Southwick Park team of Colin Monkford, Clive Marchant, Alex Paine, & Mark Strong coming out winners 32 – 11 against the Mackie team of Chick Pringle,Cliff Ainsworth,Dave Moses, and Barry Allen in the Mens competition. The Ladies however was a match just for Lindfield with their A team of Shirley Nelson, Janine Scola, Sue Paterson, and Vera Stevens taking the honours from their B team of Chris Sugarhood, Jennie Holland, Carol Watson, and Sue Wilmott by 22-13.

On August Bank Holiday Monday St Francis Bowls Club held their annual finals day, completing this year’s internal competitions. The weather was perfect after a cloudy start and overall the club members agreed that the day was a great success.

Tony Jarvis won his first tournament beating Rod Cobby 21-12 in the singles final.

The Ladies singles went down to the wire with Marge Breading edging out Grace Thrussell by a single shot to take the trophy. The final score was 21-20.

Mike Batterbee took his first ever trophy winning the “Never Won Singles” cup beating David MacMillan by 24-11.

Over at Haywards Heath & Beech Hurst, Betty Turk notched up a trio of wins, lifting the mixed pairs, the Sam Farmer Plate and the handicap.