February Report 2009

Well folks the first ten days of the month started with the Andalucian Championships held at Cabrera and Indalo Bowling Clubs. A number of our federated members took part and performed very well.
In the Men’s Singles, Graham Patrick, Brian Lovett and John Fitzgerald reached the quarterfinals. Matt Tew, a Spanish National player, narrowly beat Brian, John lost to the eventual winner of the Men’s Singles, Mark Naylor. Graham did extremely well in reaching the Semi-finals and was unlucky to meet Mark.
Ladies Singles was represented by Pat Beattie and Patsy Tonkin but went out in the early rounds.
Colin Wright and Pat Beattie reached the Semi-final but lost to the eventual competition winners, Matt Tew and Mick Johnson, both these players currently representing Spain.
The Rinks again were very strong with two teams reaching the Quarterfinal stage,
Joe Pemberton, Jim Pike, Norma Pemberton and Sandra Bain, the other, Colin Wright, Roy Tonkin, Patsy Tonkin and Pat Beattie. Colin’s team reached the Semi-finals but were not strong enough against a team from Indalo, skipped by Mick Johnson.
Also on the site is the official opening of the new green, which took place on Tuesday morning of the 3rd February. A good turn out saw Shirley cut the tape. Many thanks must go to Anthony and Shirley for their support, Terry, Joe, Jim and other members for the enormous amount of work carried out to reach this stage. The members played bowls after the opening and reports were good apropos the playing texture and movement of bowls.
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 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.
Monday 23rd and Friday 27th was the time for the last competition of the month, the Inaugural Cup. This attracted twenty-four mixed pairs to take part to compete for cash prizes awarded to the top three over the two day round robin event. On completion of Monday  Joe and Norma Pemberton led the way with Colin Wright and Pat Beattie second place. In third place our illustrious treasurer Ray Wolverson, accompanied by his wife Valerie. Friday, the final day Colin and Pat moved up to win, Joe and Norma lost the lead to come second and a big jump from tenth on the first day to third place was Graham and Catherine Patrick.
Jim Pike our illustrious Captain thanked all spectators for the support given during the competitions, Joe Pemberton for the organisation and those that marked the singles, who without, the competition could not take place. He also gave the exciting news that in a couple of weeks time the management had informed us that refurbishing work would start on the surroundings, clubhouse, etc to match the huge amount of work that Terry Rodgers, Joe Pemberton, Jim Pike and other members have done for our bowling greens, especially green 1 which died on us during the summer last year. I am sure members will be excited at the prospect of our club looking pristine again.
On the subject of members, for all those new players who have kept our coach, Norman Atkins busy in bringing you up to speed, welcome. Many thanks to Norman  for taking so much time out  doing this for our club.
Don’t forget to look at our web site; www.bowlingalmeria.com for all that is going on at Almeria Lawn Bowls Club.

Vic Parsons