6 DECEMBER

The combined Men’s and Women’s Bowling Clubs Presentation Night was held this evening.

With a good representation from both Clubs attending.

Presentation Night as the name suggests, is the night that both Clubs honour and acknowledge the winners and runners-up of the various Club competitions run during the year.

There were many highlights of the evening but for me the story behind the men’s Major Singles trophy deserved some attention.

The participants in the Club Major Singles play for the honour of having their name inscribed on the Noel Cover Memorial Trophy.

This year it was won, again, by Jeff Baker.

Noel Cover was a significant bowler back in the 1980’s winning both the Minor and Major Singles Championships in 1985 and going on to win the Major Singles on five more occasions.

He was successful in other forms of the game pairing with other players to win the Club Pairs on three occasions, Club Triples 7 times and Club Fours 10 times.

Our own Club Patron and Life Member, Daryl Martin had the pleasure of playing with Noel and describes him as ‘a great club member, wonderful to be in his company, a real gentleman and a brilliant bowler’.

At one time Noel was also the Patron of our Club.

It was fitting that Noel was represented on the night by his daughter, Sandra Hagan.

Congratulations to all those who received awards for the 2021 season.

Another significant event during the evening was the naming of the Men’s Club ‘Clubman of the Year’.

I’m sure there would not be one dissenting voice in the Club when it was announced that this prestigious award went to our amazing Games Secretary Rob Young.

Rob is a great communicator and has a direct line to the ‘man upstairs’ in steering the Club’s yearly programme through the vagaries of the weather and navigating the Club through constraints imposed on us courtesy of Covid.

Congratulations Rob well deserved!

The Garden Eatery catered for the event, and it must be reported that the meals were excellent and served in an efficient and timely manner.

We are indeed fortunate to have the Garden Eatery at our Club.

8 December

Today saw 40 bowlers take to the synthetic green with the grass still a bit heavy following 25mm of rain the night before.

The morning winners were decided on ‘highest winning margin’ with Geoff Page, Ron Rowe and Dennis Ashbridge successful with a 15-point margin.

The afternoon winners were Rob Jones, Peter Campbell and Denis Wilberforce with the result determined by ‘lowest winning score’.

They won with 10 points.

The Garden Eatery voucher was won by Mark Nightingale.

Our thanks to the Garden Eatery for sponsoring Men’s bowls.

This week will be the last week of organised bowls for the year with bowls resuming on 12 January 2022.

 

By John SLATER