Saturday saw our men triumphant when they played the first game of the season away to their old friendly rivals at Frys’. They won the game 101 shots to 97, winning on 4 of the 5 rinks. Great start boys.
The weather was certainly on our side on Sunday afternoon when members gathered at Norwest for this year’s President’s Day. It’s always a treat to get out onto the green at the start of a new season and what can be better than to do it by playing in this friendly, fun game.
We started the afternoon with a minute’s silence to remember two Norwest bowlers, Ernie Witcombe and Margaret Aston and also fellow bowler from Prattens, Rex Pierce, who have recently passed away.
Our charity Spider competition this year was in aid of Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal for the Bristol Children’s Hospital, who support sick children in Bristol and the South West. It’s a great cause and one that is very close to the heart of one of our members, Mark Kite, whose one-year-old grandson, Caiden, has been in great need of their care and expertise. Thankfully, Caiden is doing well at the moment.
The competition was won by Clayton Rich, who received a bottle of wine and we were able to hand over £40 to a very worthy cause.
After this, the competition began in earnest. With rinks and playing positions being drawn out of the hat, you never know which position you’ll be playing in and brand new bowlers can be skips, while old hands are leads and find out that maybe it’s not quite as easy to put the jack up as they thought. It also means that winning is as much luck as skill, which maybe accounts for the fact that I won the ladies’ competition. John Mallison won the men’s trophy and our wooden spooners were Cilla Rich and new bowler, Stephen Pitt.
A big vote of thanks went to the ladies, Sue, Mary, Doris, Joan and Lin, who provided us with a sumptuous buffet and bar men Brian, Eddie and Ken. We also have to thank Paul, who organised the game and generally kept us in order. Overall, it was a brilliant afternoon, hopefully just one of many to come during the 2017 season.
With the beginning of the bowls season, inevitably we come to the end of the skittle season and what a thoroughly enjoyable one it was. Keith Coombes presented the club with a donation of £100 plus a keg of cider, which was sold behind the bar, raising a further £35. Thanks go to Keith and his sidekick, Dennis, for organising yet another very successful Fish and Chip skittles league.
Now on to Norwest’s crib players. Although in the Radstock and District cribbage league, Norwest’s players weren’t so hot, with Norwest’s B team picking up the wooden spoon, it was a different matter in the cup games. In the pairs competition, Val Padfield and Jackie Billing were runners up while in the 4’s, Ann and Ken Woodham, Ann Morgan and Thelma Chun, with the assistance for one game of Reg Morgan, were triumphant and carried off the trophy.
NH