Category: News

New Forest Men Success

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After the short New Forest League men’s program finished at the end of July, the season continued with the League trophy events. The squad were narrowly beaten in the first round of The Ringwood Shield by Highcliffe. This defeat gave us the satisfaction of qualifying for the plate trophy, The Ivor Fourmy Trophy. This enabled us to defend the Trophy we won last year.
In the first round of the Home/ Away format we had a close match against Lymington, which we won by seven shots. In the next round, on 22nd August, the lads battled through the miserable weather to comfortably win against New Milton, with a shot difference at home of 30 in our favour and 20 away – total victory of 50 shots. Hooray, we are in the final on 14th September at Fordingbridge BC. playing either Highcliffe B or Lyndhurst A.
Regards, Alan

2024 Gala Day

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Secretary’s report on Gala day on 18 August 2024
I arrived at Alderbury just after 9:00 am and found the club was open and several people were setting up for the day. With the first round of matches due to start at 10:00, players from the 19 entries arrived in good time and signed in. Unfortunately Amesbury was unable to send any entries due to a long standing friendly match.
The first round started promptly on time. The 35 minutes for each round was enough for all games to finish their four ends well within the time allocated. Timing was kept very efficiently all day by Nick Hanski .Four rounds were completed n the morning session after which the Spider was won by Jan Jarman of Alderbury bowls Club. The lunch break was a time to eat and drink and socialise with friends old and new. As in the past, some people brought their own packed lunches. However, Alderbury provided cakes and rolls with various fillings and tea and coffee and bar drinks. The raffle prizes were very reasonable. The winning raffle numbers were picked and the prizes were grateful collected.
Two further rounds were played after lunch and two teams had won all four matches – these were Mere and Alderbury, and they were now in the final. As the weather was still warm and sunny, over thirty players stayed and watched a good final with one team in front one end but the other team coming back to take the lead. After 6 ends, the score was 6-all but in the final two ends Alderbury used their local knowledge and ran out the winners.
The winning Alderbury team was Alison Cosens(lead) Roy Jury (2nd) and John Halski ( skip). The runners up from Mere were Marie Wright (lead) Shaun Tealey (2nd) and Les Manwaring ( skip).
The overriding feeling was that the day was a great success and matches were played in a friendly manner. May I congratulate the MTL clubs that supplied nineteen triple team entries. The green seemed to me to be good, at just the right speed for the day and certainly I heard no complaints.
The whole day was organised and very efficiently run by Alderbury and my thanks to the volunteer officers and club member for their contribution. The revenue generated from entrance fees, the spider and the raffle will boost the the MTL bank account by a healthy £293.
At the autumn meeting we will need to choose a host club to run the Gala Day but that is a few months away. In conclusion, I would like to thank all the players and volunteers who took part in the Gala Day.
Robert Hayes
MTL Secretary

Mens New Forest League

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HALFWAY STAGE OF NFL. We are standing in third place after playing half of our matches. This may be because DBC have played one more match than the rest of the Division 3. Perhaps that one more match was our resounding victory over Ringwood A, 90 shots to 45. Our total number of shots for the season is 416, which balances nicely with shots against of 416. Please see the table attached, I am sure the second half will be more settled and consistent.
Regards, Alan

New forest League v Highcliffe A, 2nd May

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HIGHCLIFFE A v DOWNTON, 2nd May
Highcliffe A 77 shots, 6 points, Downton 64 shots 2points
The first League match on a dry but dismal evening. The green was soft and slow due to our rainfall over the last days and months. Two Rinks won and Two Rinks lost. The winning rink of Steve Allen, John James and Paul Tanner had a cagey game, with Highcliffe preferring long jacks and Downton shorter. When a long jack was cast into the ditch this worked in Downton’s favour. Going into the last end 3 up, they held on to win by one shot. The other winning trio of Nick, Lewis and Charles, had an extremely tight game where the last three ends were won to overcome Highcliffe by two shots. Unfortunately the rest of our team did not play so well and allowed Highcliffe A to win the match 77-64 and six points to 2. Nice game to start the season especially with the hot dogs afterwards.
Alan W.

Regards Alan

Green Opening – Charity Fun Afternoon

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Just confirming that the Green will open for our first event on Tuesday 16th at 2pm.

This is our traditional Charity Match and so we will ask for £2 from each player to compete in the preliminary Spider. After the Spider, we will choose some teams to compete over 10 ends, depending on the numbers – So come along and loosen those arms!

After Tuesday the Green is obviously open for the rest of the season.

This week’s highlights:

  • We have a Men’s Practise on Thursday Evening
  • Friday is Club Night

Feel free to use the Green for a Roll Up anytime.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

Green Report – April 2024

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Pre season preparation for the surface of the Green has been badly affected by the weather, not just of late, but all through the winter months.

We have not been able to cut the saturated grass at regular intervals, the last time being well over a week ago. The grass height needs to be gradually reduced to a playing level, in the correct conditions this may be managed over a week.

If bowls were played on the ground at the moment then damage would be caused due to the softness; on top of this the speed would be intolerably slow. Taking all this into account, the Green team will try to have a reasonable playing surface by Tuesday 16th April, but there is no guarantee, particularly if we have any more wet weather.

We’ve therefore decided to move the opening Charity Fun Day on 16th April at 2pm.

Alan Waters, Greenkeeper.

Marie Clarke is now on the County Register

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Marie Clarke, from Downton Bowling Club has now earned enough points to be offered a place on the County Register.

You are awarded points as winner/runner up in club singles and for getting to certain rounds of county competitions.  If you get 6 points over a rolling 8 years, you qualify to go on the County Register.

Well done Marie!