May  28th

2025

On a chilly Wednesday evening, we hosted Palmer Park in a fixture in the OTL. They were riding on the wave of 3 successive victories, so we knew it would not be easy, but Shiplake dug deep and emerged victorious, by 87-81. Shiplake won 3 rinks to 2 and earned 14 OTL points.

The outstanding performance of the evening was by Janet Townley, Dave Bullock and Wendy Cross, who won 24-7, winning 12 of the 18 ends and never in danger of defeat.

There were tight results on two other rinks.

Jane Ward, John Townley and Graham Kennedy fought back from 0-7 down after 5 ends to win 9 of the next 10 ends, to lead 17-8. Palmer Park won the last 3 ends, but Shiplake held on to win 17-14.

On the rink next to them, Marilyn Mowatt, Keith Walters and Tony Reid won a seesaw match by 20-18. The score went to and fro and it was 6-6 after 7 ends, before Shiplake scored 4 shots to push ahead. 3 shots from Palmer Park closed the gap, but 5 shots on end 11 pushed Shiplake clear. Despite a spirited comeback by Palmer Park, Shiplake held on for victory.

May 25th 2025

Our second Open Day of the year, in line with the Bowls Big Weekend, was very disappointing. A combination of the Bank holiday weekend and very high winds conspired to keep numbers low. Good use was made of the time by those members who had come to help. Elaine did a sterling job of clearing the weeds on the path, others had a roll up and some even used the time to play their club competition fixture.

Graham Kennedy played Margaret Bullock in the Seniors competition. Graham won and progressed to the next round.

Jane Ward secured a hard fought victory over Dave Bullock in the first round of the 2 Wood, winning by 2 sets to love (7-6, 7-5)

In total, we had 10 visitors on the day.

May 24th

 2025

In a resurrected fixture today, it was Ladies v Gents, with Wendy Cross and Alan Gough being the respective Captains. A convincing win for the Gents by 87-61, with convincing wins for Neil Warley, Keith Walters and Mick Lovejoy on Rink 5 and Dave Ward, Alan Gough and Graham Kennedy on Rink 2. The solitary win for the Ladies was on Rink 4 by Sandra Gough, Ruth Copp and Elaine Robinson. Rink 2 was a hard fought draw between David Lloyd, Dave Bullock and Jim Bland against Margaret Bullock, Pete McCoubrey (honorary lady for the day) and Janet Townley.

May 21st

 2025

On a surprisingly sunny evening, following a thundery rainy day, Shiplake travelled to Three Mile Cross for a friendly fixture. The weather and the company were good, but the result was not, with Three Mile Cross winning all 5 rinks and winning 95-60 overall. Shiplake came close on Rink 2, with Sandra Gough, Jeff Harris and Alan Gough losing 11-13 and on Rink 6, with Lorraine Walters, Dave Bullock and Tony Reid succumbing 14-16.

May 17th

2025

Our first OTL match of the season ended with both Shiplake and Hurst winning 2 rinks, with one rink drawn. Overall, Hurst won by 92 shots to 72 and gained 9 OTL points to Shiplake's 5.

A very comfortable win on Rink 5 for Janet Townley, David Bullock and Tony Reid by 23-7. They were never threatened, building a 12-1 lead by end 10. A single by Hurst on end 11 was answered by 5 shots from Shiplake on and 12. Shiplake continued to build their score, with 6 more shots to Hurst's 5 in the final 6 ends.

Pete Leverett, Jean Buckett and Graham Kennedy had a much tougher task to gain their win, trailing 0-8 after 3 ends. 4 shots in 3 ends reduced the deficit to 4-8, but Hurst hit back with a 4 to lead 12-4. Shiplake responded with 5 shots on the next end to make it 9-12. 4 shots from Shiplake to Hurst's 1 over the next and the game was drawn at 13-13 at end 11. Honours were fairly even for the remainder of the game, but Shiplake emerged as winners by 19-17.

An even tighter result on Rink 2, where Jane Ward, Jeff Harris and Wendy Cross fought out a 12-12 draw. Behind for most of the first 6 ends, they took the lead on end 7 and stayed there until the final end, when Hurst scored a single shot to level.

May  16th

2025

Our annual Club Competitions Draw took place on a lovely, warm evening. There was a very good turnout, with a number of members taking the opportunity to have a roll up before the draw. A mixture of Oohs, Aahs and groans accompanied the announcement of the pairings for the first round of the competitions. There is a record number of entries this year and thanks go out to Barrie Jones, who has put a lot of hard work into the organisation of the competitions and the sponsorship of them. Well done Barrie! Thanks also to John Townley, who helped Barrie to correctly transform odd numbers of entries into a playable format.

Thanks also go to Wendy Cross, who assisted Barrie in performing the draw and recording the pairings of players. After the completion of the draw, Wendy, ably assisted by Sandra Gough and Jane Ward, allocated new Bonanza numbers to those who are entered in the Bonanza draw each week.