West Sussex ladies welcome England – and defeat them!
West Sussex Ladies hosted – and beat – an England Ladies team at Westergate.
Captain Charlotte Rollings selected a team after a well attended trial day in January where different player combinations were tried.
The England touring team included players from all over the country.
One of the England players was Denise Kirby who plays for Infinity Short Mat Bowls Club at Boxgrove.
After a bright start by the England Ladies, who won the first session 8-4, the home team hit back winning the second session 9-3 to take an overall lead 13-11.
The third and fourth rounds saw West Sussex extend the lead to 26-22.
In the final round West Sussex held their nerve to complete a great 33-27 win.
The fixture was thoroughly enjoyed by all the players and England ladies captain Lynn Dean has already expressed an interest in returning in the future.
DONNINGTON
Donnington Short Mat Bowls Club are continuing with their internal fun matches.
The latest competition was the Chairman’s Trophy, run by the Chairman Allan Banham.
A total of 18 members of the club took part in teams of three. Skip Peter Whale was ably assisted by Alison Beal and Wendy Crockford to win the trophy.
Alison Beal is the competition organiser for the Men’s Singles, Ladies Singles, Jubilee Trophy, Invitation Pairs and Drawn Pairs internal matches. Bowlers have just completed the semi-finals stages of these competitions.
The finals take place this month.
Some 16 members met to play in the annual Spoon Drive organised by committee member Maggie Maggs, who also provided cake.
The competition was won
by Jenny Wiseman with 35 points. Chris Willson was the runner-up. Jenny was presented with a spoon and Chris with a spoon rest.
The trophy for this competition will be presented to Jenny at the annual meeting in April.
Donningtom SMBC still have a few spaces available for those who would like to try short mat bowls.
Telephone Allan Banham 01243 783434 if you are interested in giving it a try.
CRABLANDS
Crablands Avocets hosted Lavant Blue in a short mat league match.
On mat one, the Avocets won 21-18.
On the other league mat Lavant streaked ahead and won 31-17. This gave Lavant an overall win and four of the six available league points.
There was a friendly alongside the league matches which was also won by Lavant. All the games were played in a competitive but friendly way.
Four teams from Crablands travelled to Westergate to take part in the County Over-55 pairs competition.
There were 32 teams at the event from all over the county and there was some strong competition.
Cheryl Brown and Elaine Sadler came second in their group and qualified for the knockout cup event. Unfortunately, they lost to Alan and Celia Foot in the first round.
The County Singles event at Westergate was also very well attended.
Six bowlers represented Crablands and both Elaine Sadler and Denise Merritt qualified third in their group and went on to play in the knockout Plate competition.
Crablands bowlers only lost they their first-round matches by one point.
Crablands Avocets travelled to Fittleworth to play a return league match.
Fittleworth were determined to do well on their home turf and they did, as Avocets struggled to ‘find the mat’ and lost heavily.
In two top of the table matches in quick succession, Crablands Cormorants won both 6-0.
Versus Arundel Swallows, Denise Merritt, Jan Obermayer and Rod Shambrook won 21-13 and Val Foyle, Chris Lewendon and Tony Dade won 32-13.
Next Crablands faced East Preston Yellows. Bill Merritt returned from illness and partnered Val Foyle and Tony Dade to an impressive win of 32-9.
East Preston were third in the league before this defeat, so it puts Crablands in a very nice position for promotion.
Crablands Avocets travelled to Walberton for a Division 2 league match.
On mat one the Avocets got off to a rather shaky start, but started to make a comeback.
The team of Cheryl Brown, Paul Holland and Graham Ainge won 21-16 gaining two league points.
The other Avocets team played very well but the Walbertonskip kept stealing the show on the last end and Walberton won comfortably.
The West Sussex Short Mat County trials were held at Westergate.
Three separate matches were played with current county players mixing with those ‘on trial’.
Two Crablands members attended and both Cheryl Brown and John Hardy have subsequently been invited to join the county B team for the 2022-23 season.
If you are interested in joining short mat bowls, please contact Alex on 01243 605918 or alex.ainge@
btinternet.com
Crablands Green Bowls have their open day for new bowlers Saturday, April 16 from 10am.
Contact Chris Lewendon on 01243 601859 or chrisandlew@hotmail.com if you are interested.
Crablands’ men’s senior tennis team were away to Angmering.
Michael Ackerman, Nigel Allfrey, Andy Gilmour, Carl Spencer took them to a 2-2 draw.