Weekly Round Up of First Team Matches

August 14th - Final Game

The final game of the league season saw Rowner host a Cowplain side that were desperately trying to save their Division 1 status, only a convincing win from the visitors would provide them with a chance of staying up. 

The game got off to a start and 3 of Rowner's Rinks were pretty much in command and it seemed that Cowplain's players could feel the drop closing in. However one rink from the carpet bowlers was showing the home team how they could bowl. Thus giving a glimmer of life to the visitors, in actual fact that that rink went 9 nil up after 5 ends with the Rowner rink not getting much luck, by the 10th end the rink was 15-3 to the visitors, and the Skip was trying not to let it get to him (notice how i'm writing this in the third person!!) however, the next 8 ends did see a vast improvement from the home team and gave a sight of getting some sort of result from the game, until the final end when the Rowner rink decided not to turn up leaving the skip to save grace with his final wood and losing by 3 overall. The other rinks were becoming a tight affair on 2 of them, whilst the Matt Sweetenham rink were comfortably leading the way. In the end Rowner won 3 rinks to Cowplain's 1 resulting in a 72-56 score and a 14-2 points win. This also confirmed 'final position of Third in the table, rounding off a pretty good season where some silverware had been won in the Centenary Cup and a high league finish. Here's to next season......

Rink Scores:

G Coles 16-19 K Ford

C Hay 15-13 S Wiggins

P Pinder 15-14 P Crowley

M Sweetenham 26-10 P Powe

August 7th - "Stafford Is Better Late Than Never!"

With only 2 league games to go until the end of the season, this intrepid reporter unfortunately decided to go on a weekend away, thus leaving the updates to be relayed to me by WhatsApp. 

The team headed to Gosport for this latest battle, Gosport have been struggling all season and find themselves currently bottom of the pile for the season, and look increasingly likely to return to Div 2 at the end of the season.

The game started off as usual with a couple of rinks finding their stride straight away and the other rinks keeping it tight. The amount of shots the 2 rinks getting off to a flyer though must have eased the stress though as they were holding a 22 shot advantage. it became clear as the game came to a close that the Gosport sie could not muster much more of a challenge and were feeling the drop creeping up behind them as the 2 rinks that were winning for Gosport suddenly found themselves being valiantly clawed back by the Rowner rinks. In the end it took an (im being told, as i dont quite believe the scenario myself!) almighty effort from Barry Stafford to move the jack with his last wood of the game to nick 2  shots and win his rink by 1 shot, lucky boy! Final score overall was 15-1 to Rowner, cementing our place in third with one game to play at home on Friday to Cowplain.

Rink Scores were:

Phil Pinder 14-14

Matt Sweetenham 20-6

Chris Hay 24-8

Barry Stafford 16-15

July 31st

The men were hosts to last seasons champions, Milton Park, the incentive for us was that we find ourselves in third place currently and a win here would have cemented us in that position. Alas a very close game across the board finally ended in 2 rinks apiece winning, and an overall defeat of 58 shots to 55. 

Rink Scores:

J Berry 20-11 C Chamberlain

C Hay 10-15 A McKain

P Pinder 8-22 D Brown

G Coles 17-10 T Molloy

July 24th

The next game was an away day to our friendly local rival at Lee on Solent, this roving reporter though was on holiday and the only information i have is to say the Rowner boys prevailed and won on 3 rinks to bring home a 14-2 victory

July 17th

The First Teams next game was away to the superstars of Waverley, as always it was a subdued environment (not) as the Titans of Waverley got into their stride early on on one rink especially, Rowner put up a strong fight on 3 of the rinks but unfortunately, one rink was being dealt a heavy blow on every end and through no fault of their own, were not getting the rubs that usually help turn games. we eventually lost on 3 rinks and drew on one, resulting in a 15-1 loss overall.

Rink Scores:

G Coles 14-15 L McCubbin

P Pinder 17-19 J Biggs

M Sweetenham 18-18 G Starks

B Stafford 8-34 D Smith

July 13th

Another Monday night game arrived and we were back home for the evening to face off against Alexandra Park, after the brutal chastening against Fareham 3 days earlier, we all had eyes on redemption. The game was very tight on 3 rinks, whilst one rink seemed to be doing a lot f damage to the visitors overall morale, we eventually won on all 4 rinks to ensure a 16-0 victory (Matt Sweetenham taking a 5 on the last end again to win a thrilling affair)

Rink Scores:

G Coles 18-12 P Lawrence

M Sweetenham 15-14 N Scutt

P Pinder 24-13 B Riste

C Hay 20-19 D Lilley

July 10th

Only a few days after the victory against Leigh Park, the men had a short journey to our neighbours of Fareham, the green was particularly tricky and we did not have the sort f game we had come to expect in the last few weeks, in fact only one rink won and we were well and truly beaten in the end.

Rink Scores

B Stafford 22 -8 C Bailey

G Coles 7-23 D Russsell

M Sweetenham 3-26 C Friend

P Pinder 15-18 W Ross

July 6th

It was a quick turnaround as we had a Monday night game a couple of days after the thrilling Vospers Game, this time we were the hosts to the men of Leigh Park. The game hadnt even started when tragedy struck the visitors as one of their team had broken down on the motorway en route, and they had no subs, so they had to play one rink a man short which meant that rink would lose 25% of their score.

The game started and it seemed like we had a bit of a hangover from Friday (or maybe too many of the bowlers were feeling tired after being up at 2am to watch the England game?) as the Leigh Park rinks got off to a flyer apart from the Josh Berry rink who were 10 shots up at the halfway point. Th Graeme Coles rink were nip tuck throughout and there was only 1 shot in it after 10 ends, whereas the other 2 rinks were struggling a bit. However, there must have been some sort of kick up the proverbial as they both suddenly found their stride and got some much needed shots in to help bring the overall score to a better position. By the end the Chris Hay rink had pulled it back to draw, but their opponents having being a man down had to lose shots as a forfeit resulting in a win, Josh's rink looked a bit shell shocked as the Parkies team had made some sort of a revival but they couldnt quite muster enough and Josh came out winning by 5, Graemes rink finished off very friendly with a draw, leaving Matt Sweetenham to hold his nerve with everyone watching him again, considering they had been 15-6 down after 11 ends the boys had done a great job to bring it back to a respectable score line and only lost by 3 shot overall, giving the Rowner boys an overall win of 78 shots to the Leigh Park score of 71.5 and a 13-3 points total, leaving us 4th on Div 1 with several games still to play.

Rink Scores were:

G Coles 17 - 17 B Cope

C Hay 18 - 18 (13.5 after deductions) G Theobald

J Berry 25 - 20 A Revell Jr

M Sweetenham 18 - 21 J Ward

July 3rd

The halfway point of the league season is here which means we are now starting the return fixtures. This week saw us visit Vosper at their Northern Parade home, Vospers had beaten us 14-2 on the first game of the season, giving us a real urge to redeem some pride and continue our current winning run in the league. We also had an enforced 4 changes from our previous game due to holidays (who goes on holiday mid season?!?!).

The game started quite evenly with some of the skips commenting that the pace of the green was better than we had expected and enjoyed the prospect of the evening. As things go though, bowls can bring a few twists and turns and some rinks were feeling the pinch of the home teams expertise of their own green. As the evening progressed, 2 rinks of Rowner were winning and 2 rinks were losing, fortunately one of the Rowner rinks seemed to be walking on water and were 20 shots up at the halfway point, helping the overall score look in favour of the away team. But the 2 losing rinks suddenly had a few shots go against them and a tense finale ensued. This culminated in 2 of Rowners rinks losing  by 21 shots overall, with the Graeme Coles rink winning by 25 shots alone, meaning we were 4 up on the game, however, Matt Sweetenhams rink had taken a lull and were 17-13 down with 2 ends still to play, pressure must have gotten to the home team though and the Rowners boys steely exterior came to fruition as they took a 1 on the 17th, and finished with a flurry of 5 shots on the last end, resulting in a 2 shot win, giving us a 6 shot win overall. 

Rink scores were:

G Coles 32 - 7 D Boswell

B Stafford 9 - 21 T Smith

P Pinder 12 - 21 R Porter

M Sweetenham 19 - 17 J Sunderland

June 26th

This week saw us on the road to Cowplain, home of a carpet green, which always brings a bit of trepidation to lawn bowlers. However, the team selected had a lot of experienced indoor bowlers and some that dont mind playing on carpet too. All of this therefore, helped the team to a convincing 14-2 win and by 84 shots to 64. Rink results were:

G Coles 21-15 K Pern

B Stafford 26-17 B Franklin

C Hay 9-25 S Wiggins

J Berry 28-7 D Powe

June 19th

The latest round of league games saw the men of Gosport visit the Rowner Lawn on Friday night, Gosport so far have had a real battle in the league and are sat towards the bottom of the table, but as you know, nothing can be taken for granted, and so it proved over the first half of the game as it was fairly even across all 4 rinks, however the boys dug in and all rinks were in front with about 4 ends to play, with only one rink succumbing to a Gosport fight back resulting in the team getting a 14-2 win and cementing ou position in the top half of the league. Rink Results were:

P Pinder 16-9 K Stanbury

M Sweetenham 20-12 T Horne

G Coles 14-17 J Oswell

C Hay 18-11 A Sherwen

June 12th

The team visited the current league holders Milton park to see if we could take any spoils from them, unfortunately the team was missing some players and, to be diplomatic, the Milton Park green is somewhat challenging, cant tell why theyre unbeaten at home so far this season. We put up a brave fight but came away with nothing and a 16-0 loss.

June 5th

The latest league game saw our local rivals Lee on Solent visit the hallowed turf of Rowner, this is always a fixture we look out for each year and the same could be said for this one. Rowner had a mixed start to the game with the 2 rinks of Matt Sweetenham and Chris Hay bursting out the gates whilst Graeme Coles and Stand in skip for the evening Josh Berry, starting off a bit slow. However by the middle of the game it had turned on its head for Graeme Coles' rink as after being 7-1 down after 5 ends, they were now 14-7 up after 11 ends. It was nip tuck on the Josh Berry and Chris Hay rinks throughout the evening and Matt Sweetenhams rink were confidently in charge for the majority of the game.

However, as Rowner dont like to make it easy for ourselves, it was all a bit too tight for some, and Matt rink lost a 5 on the 17th end which meant the Lee on Solent rink were now 16-15 up with one end to play, fortunately though, the other 3 rinks had maintained a good game and Graeme and Josh won, with Chris ending as a draw.

Final rink scores were:

M Sweetenham  15-17 G Payne

J Berry 13-11 J Hadfield

C Hay 16-16 M Ellis

G Coles 24-8 P Gentry

overall score of 68-52 in favour of Rowner, with a Points total of 13-3, taking Rowner up to Fourth in the league after 6 games.

May 29th

The 5th game of the season saw us hosting the men of Waverley, this game is probably one of the loudest of the season and it certainly maintained the competitiveness again this time round. It started off fairly even for the first half of the match, but for some reason, Rowners recent resiliance waned and the strength of the Waverley team shone through, it was unfortunately an overall defeat on all rinks for Rowner with a total score being 54-92 to Waverley and a 16-0 points score going to the visitors.

scores:

G Coles 14-25 D Smith

C Hay 18-20 J Biggs

P Pinder 11 - 23 L McCubbin

M Sweetenham 11-24 G Starks

May 22nd

the 4th league game of the season saw us travel to Alexandra park, notorious for many setbacks for Rowner over the years. The green may have looked iffy, but I have been advised by those who were there, that it didn't play that badly. however it looked as if it took our guys a few ends to really find the pace and the lines as it looked a bit daunting after several ends. However, the boys kicked in and turned the game on its head and ended up with a winning result of 12-4, (70 shots to 62), winning on two rinks and losing on 2 

rink scores were:

B Stafford 18-22 D Lilley

C Hay 10-12 B Riste

M Sweetenham 19-16 N Scutt

P Pinder 22-11 P Lawrence

May 15th

Friday saw us play our third game of the season against local rivals Fareham seeing the return of a handful of former Rowner bowlers. The weather tried to play a part a few hours before with a deluge of rain but the green is in fine mettle and was cleared to play. The game was a very tight affair and the Rowner boys pulled trough right at the end to win the game by 2 shots overall 65-63, with 2 winning rinks and 2 losing rinks. The scores were:

P Pinder 18 - 20 C Bailey

C Hay 15-13 D Bishop

G Coles 12-23 W Ross

M Sweetenham 20-7 C Friend

May 8th:

Our second game of the season had us make an away trip to Leigh Park, there was some trepidation after the combination team had visited on the Wednesday night before and the report of the green was not great. But, when we got there the sight that met us was a bit better than expected, and a freshly cut green awaited us.

This obviously inspired the team, as we manged to come away with all rinks winning and a 16-0 result in our favour. 

Scores for the evening were as follows:

G Coles 22 - 3 M Street

B Stafford 15 - 14 E Theobold

P Pinder 19 - 9 J Ward

M Sweetenham 19 - 15 B Cope

May 1st - Rowner vs Vospers

Well, the first league game of the season came round and all optimism was on show for the first team. Unfortunately, good fortune was not shining on us as we lost the game by 85 shots to 62, with only one rink winning, the score were as follows:

G Coles 12-19 S Sunderland

M Sweetenham 24 -19 D Boswell

P Pinder 16-19 R Politsz

M Butler 10-28 T Smith