2009 Dyer Cup and Appleby Vase

The club’s men’s and ladies singles, Dyer Cup and Appleby Vase respectively started on Monday 16th, with further rounds taking place on Tuesday and Friday, reaching the semi-final stage Saturday morning of the 21st.  The finals being played in the afternoon.
The entries were very good considering the number of new members we have. Twenty ladies and thirty-two men took part. Needless to say when the competition reached the semi-finals notable scalps had been taken when expected finalists weren’t as successful as one thought.
The first ladies semi-finals were between Catherine Patrick and Jenny Thompson, both players fairly new to bowls did extremely well in reaching this stage. The game went twenty-eight ends with both girls fighting every inch of the way. Jenny finally completed the job, 21-19. The second was between two very experienced members, Maureen Atkins and Patsy Tonkin. Maureen fought hard but Patsy wasn’t in a forgiving mood and in the end won well.
The men’s first semi between Ken Sykes and Roy Tonkin was a convincing win for Roy. The second in the end was a very close between Colin Wright and John Fitzgerald. Colin forged ahead in the early stages to be eight shots ahead on the eighteenth end, but John a known fighter, inched forward to two shots behind on the twenty-sixth end, but could not match Colin who finished the job and won on the next end.
Both finals were played on Saturday afternoon when lots of enthusiastic spectators   saw two very good games. The ladies pair, Patsy Tonkin and Jenny Thompson was predictably a win for Patsy. However Jenny can be very proud of herself reaching this stage. The men’s final was between two old campaigners, Colin Wright and Roy Tonkin who gave us the game we expected, plenty of humour and very skilful bowls. For some time it looked like it was going to be a family affair with both Patsy and Roy taking the championships. However Colin who had trailed for twenty-five ends upset this scenario by taking three shots on the next end to win.
Jim Pike our illustrious Captain thanked all spectators for the support given during the competition, Joe Pemberton for the organisation and markers, who without, the competition could not take place. Photgraphs of finalists will be found in photo gallery.

Vic Parsons