2010 March Monthly Club Report

Our first competition of the month, the Miraflores Open Mixed Pairs was the re-arranged competition that was postponed due to bad weather in December 2009.  There was a good entry with 28 pairs taking part from Almeria including six pairs from La Mata Bowls Club.
Once again this year we were threatened with cold and wet weather but were able to play the round-robin format, playing three timed games of a maximum of eight ends.   Monday 8th March, the first day was was reasonably dry but the second day Tuesday 9th was effected as unfortunatly there was continuous rain during the night before.  A decision was made to abandon the first scheduled games.
Monday evening saw Dave Allen playing with a visiting friend, Liz Proctor in the lead, in second place was Wayne and Carol Roberts with Graham and Ann Clough closely behind in third place. Although the second and last day was scaled down, it didn’t really affect the eventual final outcome, with Dave and Liz maintaining their lead to win comfortably. In second place, John Fitzgerald and Viv Sykes with Colin Wright and Ann Mason finishing third. As usual a full report will be found on our website bowlingalmeria.com or in the clubhouse report folder.
The ALBC Drawn Triples   commenced with the first rounds of 16 teams played on 15th March The quarter finals taking place on the morning of Friday 19th were good wins with few surprises for those who went through to the Semi-Finals. One however was the team lead by Peter Burton, Jim Anderson and fairly new bowler Gordon Byatt who cruised into this position. Another was arguably the favorites’, Roy and Patsy Tonkin and Graham Patrick who won, but not easily against Alan Deacon, Brian Saunders and Joan Parsons. The remaining game was Dave Allen, Stan Brisco, Chris Ewer against Jenny Thompson, Mal Fritchley with Les Pratchett with Jenny’s team taking the honours.
All set in the afternoon for the two semis. Jenny’s triple fought hard and at twelfth end scores were even at 11-11, however Peter’s team, who had done so well to date, wasn’t going to let this one go without a fight and crept ahead winning by five shots.
The other unfortunately was one way traffic with Roy’s team not letting Dave’s triple get a look in winning very easily. The Final was a little closer but once again the ‘dream team’ Roy, Patsy and Graham did not let up to celebrate an unsurprising win. Well done to Peter, Jim and Gordon team for putting up a good fight, but once again congratulations to Roy, Patsy and Graham.for winning.
The Frank Sharpe competition was started in 2004 after one of our very popular bowlers, Frank Sharpe, died and the family wanted to do something to continue his memory.  It has been a very popular drawn rinks competition, taking place on Thursday afternoons, starting November 2009 going through to the final on March 25th. The eight players during the season scoring the most points in their top eight games are drawn on the day to compete against each other.
This year the two teams were drawn and one consisted of  Richard Swain taking the   skips position which is a unfamiliar to him, backed by Ken Sykes and the two ‘leprecorns’ Ray and Siobhan Herrity. The other, the very strong team of Colin Wright, Jim Pike, Patsy Tonkin and Pat Beattie.  As forecasted by onlookers the ‘Colins dream team’ started well, leading by 10-2 on end eight. Richards’s team then took six shots on the ninth. This inspired the spectators to think that Richards’s team could really do it! However a steady scoring by Colin’s team eventually won the competition by five shots.
Other news is that unfortunately the Mazzaron trip planned for Sunday 21st was cancelled due to an atrocious wet weekend. We hope to see them here in October.
We are now at the time for the ‘sunseekers’ to go home and they are going in their droves.   Two of those are as most of you are aware, are Brian Tidswell and Alan Beattie who have spent most of their stay this season feeling very poorly, some of this time being guests in Huercal Overa Hospital.On their behalf they would like to thank all those members who were very kind in supporting them with visits to hospital giving Brenda and Pat the enormous help in their worrying times.
Well folks until end of April, the last of the monthly reports unti the autumn, don’t forget that full reports and any news happening during the summer can be read on our website, bowlingalmeria.com