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We are a community based bowls club in South West Hertfordshire following all Bowls England Safeguarding policies and also offering a year round Social programme.

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Next Social Event: Live: Ventriloquist 4th Oct Submit A Corona Singles League Result?

2024 Club Competition Finals:6th/7th/8th September

Our Club Competition Finals were played over the period 6th, 7th & 8th September.

31 members played in these Finals and they were all hoping to lift a Trophy (or more in some cases!)!

For the full programme & results CLICK HERE.

Congratulations to the winners – Images taken during the weekend can also be viewed by following the link above.

***A big thank you to all who played, officiated, organised, watched and contributed in any way to making a very successful weekend***

Watford & District Vets League – Division 1 Champions for Second Season running

Our ‘Red’ Veterans Squad has completed a meteoric rise from joining the Watford & District Veterans League in the bottom division five years ago to retain the 2024 Division 1 Championship after winning it for the first time in 2023.

The 2023 squad (pictured left) enjoyed a celebratory ‘Fish & Chip’ supper in the Clubhouse on the evening of Friday 15th September, no doubt washed down with a ‘few’ samples of strong beverages! The 2024 squad awaits news of this seasons celebratory event!

Congratulations; we look forward to another title retention in 2025!!!

W&D Bowls Association: Griffin Cup 2024 – WINNERS & Cup Double

It’s a magnificent double for Berkhamsted Men as they completed the double this season winning the Ray Cup and now the Griffin Cup at Herts Bowls Club ON Sunday Aug 11th. They beat Bovingdon B.C. 48-7 in the morning semi final and beat Bushey B.C. in the afternoon final 41-32. Huge thanks to Watford & District Association for staging the comps and to Herts for hosting the Finals games.
🌞✌✌🍾👑👑

W&D Bowls Association: Ray Cup 2024 – WINNERS

Berkhamsted Captain, Chris Gray, receiving the Ray Cup from W&DBA President Arthur Deveraux

2024 Ray Cup winning squad (Tony Howard unavailable)

The Watford and District Ray Cup has returned to our club for the first time since 2011.

In Sunday (21st July) morning’s Semi-Final against Hemel Hempstead, we came out with all guns blazing and quickly established a commanding lead across all 3 Rinks of about 25 shots by the halfway point. Despite a slight lull in the second half of the match which allowed Hemel to reduce the gap, we maintained a sufficient gap to secure our place in the afternoon’s Final against Garston.

In the Final, predictably, Garston players were loud, in our faces and playing their usual confident aggressive bowls. For some of our players, this was a new experience taking them slightly by surprise, resulting in a few slightly dejected heads in the opening Ends; after 5 Ends, we were losing 1-9, 2-6 and 1-8 on the three rinks.

However the team rallied significantly in the middle & later stages, coming back fighting. David Brown’s Rink stuck to their task well, though eventually losing 17-13. Kevin Clarke’s Rink won 21-19, though having picked up a ‘5’ on the way, conceding a ‘5’ in their last end set up a significantly more nervy intense finale than Captain, Chris Gray, was hoping or expecting!

Chris Gray’s Rink, who had won 10 out of their last 13 Ends, was left to decide the match. The Garston BC Skip tried unsettling tactics by deliberately playing slower, to try and determine what he and his players needed to achieve in their last few Ends and it all came down to the very last End. Going into it we were leading by 2 shots – A second wood would suffice! Keiran Davis played perhaps, if not his best 2 woods of the match, definitely his 2 most important – 1 toucher and the other extremely close to the jack. From that moment onwards, our Skip’s job was to try to ensure that the rest of his players played good positional woods – Brian Livesey and Louis Sear did that to perfection. Though the Garston skip tried his utmost, including moving the jack, we held firm to win this last End by 1 shot, winning the Ray Cup by 3 shots overall.

The relief and joy (celebrations) by our players and supporters was a memory that we are sure Captain Chris Gray will treasure for the rest of his life.

Upcoming Club Fixtures & Recent Results

2025 Fixtures will appear in due course

Annual Mixed Triples Gala – Bank Holiday: 27th May 2024

On an intermittently showery Bank Holiday Monday, 24 teams came to our club to play in our Annual Mixed Triples Gala – it was good to see the Green occupied with rolling woods & (mostly) smiling faces between 10:00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. A Big ‘Thank You’ to those teams and to our organisational team for making the day a great success. Our intrepid roving photographer, Brian Ralphs, was in action during the day with his camera – to see his album of images CLICK HERE but please remember to exit Brian’s album using your browser’s return, or back, arrow.

At the end of the day the three teams scoring the most points were:

1st: Jane’s Boys (Townsend BC) – 37.5 Pts

2nd: Keen on the Green (Herts BC) – 36 Pts

3rd: GAP (Dunstable & Houghton Regis BC) – 34 Pts

Congratulations to them – to the other 21 teams, next year will be your year (maybe!)

The prize monies were very kindly donated by:

The Olive Tree Restaurant, Berkhamsted

For more detailed information click here to go to the 2024 Gala page.

100 Club Draw – August & September 2024

AUGUST: 1st prize – Tony Smart (181);

2nd prize – Roy Cottle (25);

3rd prize – Anne Furlong (50);

SEPTEMBER : 1st prize – John Webb (37);

2nd prize – Ian Shaw (192);

3rd prize – Emma Gratton 111);

Congratulations to these lucky members

Reminder – One ticket costs £12 for the year, i.e. £1 a month, and your collective participation raises approximately £1,000 each year for club funds, while the other half is paid out in prize money. Further info, or to purchase extra tickets please contact Jackie Healy (07752 479336).

Bowls England – Keep up to date

Information on Bowls England activities and initiatives can be obtained from their web site www.bowlsengland.com or by subscribing to their YouTube channel which they have launched as part of its commitment to inform and entertain its members. This provides Bowls England with a ‘one-stop shop’ for all its multimedia content where you will find the ‘Extra End’ Podcast, ‘Keep Active’ videos and other audio-visual content.

To view this channel, or to subscribe to receive notification when any new content is uploaded, click on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjtPZ9KqcGZA1L0fHqxfMeg