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January 2021 opinion piece

It looks like happy scenes like this to the left are not going to be repeated in our Clubhouse for some time soon.

All we can hope is that everybody does their bit to get the virus transmission down by obeying the social interaction rules, even if/when they have received their vaccinations. The latter is not an individual’s magic passport to better times – the post author believes those times have to wait until nearly all of the adult population has been immunised.

Hopefully this will allow some form of Bowling to resume towards the end of April/early May.

For the last friendly game of the season on the 19th of September Berkhamsted played Wendover Bowls Club away. It was an excellent day – the green played well and the weather was good. It was a close fought competition, but congratulations go to the winners Wendover by 82 shots to 103. Berkhamsted’ s top rink players were Jackie Healey, Dave Drew and skip Jackie Cormack. Captain for the day was Dagmar McKay.

On Sunday, the last day of the season, Berkhamsted held its traditional President’s day in which fourteen team of triples played three matches with points being accumulated for winning ends and matches. The winning team was Steve Burrell, Noreen Codina & John Bell who totalled a very impressive 37 points. The theme for the day was ‘Flora & Fauna’ and the spider contest raised money for Parkinsons.

A blend of new members, juniors, experienced bowlers and competition winners retired to the clubhouse after for a superb buffet laid on by the First Lady and her helpers providing a very successful end to a season in which Berkhamsted achieved a lot of success in the County & District competitions

The 2 Photo’s show Dave Sear in the best Flora & Fauna costume of the day, the other showing all the participants prior to the competition.

On Friday Berkhamsted played Kings Langley in the Dacorum Charity Shield. Although they have already won this Competition this season Berkhamsted beat them 4 Games to 1. The Ladies team of Carol Dunn, Dagmar McKay, Kay Lingwood and Jackie Cormack won 27-22; The Men’s team of Bob Anderson, Bill Howells, Trefor Jenkins and Tony Howard won 35-13 (and were Top Rink) and the mixed team of Liz Baker, Sylvia Smith, Brian Ralphs and David Brown lost 15-22. However, Berkhamsted won overall by 77 shots to 57 shots. Two Friendly games were also played and these teams were; Marion Maynard, Stuart Wesley, Steve Shearing and Ken Maynard who drew 20-20 and Eric Lloyd, Gill Howells, Alan Baker and Maurice Primo who unfortunately lost 18-22.

On Saturday a friendly match was played against Berkhamsted’s old rivals Kitcheners, from just down the road and Berkhamsted managed to win a game played on a lovely warm day by 82 shots to 69. The top team for Berkhamsted was Noreen Codina, Brian Smith, Sylvia Smith and Dave Sear.

Berkhamsted Bowls Club held its Finals this weekend starting on Friday evening with the Semi-Finals of the Mixed Triples to determine the Finalists for Sunday Afternoon. There were 8 finals on Saturday and another 8 on Sunday and we were blessed with fine, if cool at times, weather. We were treated to some fine bowling and some close matches on an excellently prepared green. Sarah Marshall, our blind bowler won her first club championship and then went on to win two more (aided by her directors; Liz Temple & Linda Ralphs).

The highlights included: The Men’s Singles between Kevin Clarke and Jack Bunting, The 2-Wood Men’s Singles between David Brown & Jack Bunting; The Highland Trophy Singles – where Tony Howard narrowly beat Brian Ralphs; The U19 Singles Final was a very high class match between the Bunting brothers with Jack beating younger brother Toby by 3 shots and lastly the Fours was decided with a last end winning shot – doesn’t come much closer than that!

The Results were as follows…..

Ladies Singles: Winner: Kay Lingwood; R/Up: Jackie Cormack;

Men’s Singles Winner Kevin Clarke; R/Up: Jack Bunting;

Ladies 2-Wood Singles: Winner: Sarah Marshall; R/Up: Jackie Cormack;

Men’s 2-Wood Singles: Winner: David Brown; R/Up: Jack Bunting;

Highland Trophy Singles: Winner: Tony Howard; R/Up: Brian Ralphs; Handicap Singles: Winner: Kevin Clarke; R/Up: Bob Anderson;

Veterans Singles: Winner: Tony Howard; R/Up: David Sear;

Novice Singles: Winner: Linda Ralphs; R/Up: Eric Lloyd;

Newcomers Singles: Winner: John Bell; R/Up: Toby Bunting;

U19 Singles: Winner: Jack Bunting; R/Up: Toby Bunting;

Ladies Pairs: Winners: Kay Lingwood & Sarah Marshall; R/Up: Anne Furlong & Jackie Cormack;

Men’s Pairs: Winners: David Brown & Bob Anderson; R/Up: Terry Kenyon & John Webb;

Mixed Pairs: Winners: Jack Bunting & Sarah Marshall; R/Up: Anne Furlong & Tony Howard;

Pedlow Trophy (Australian Pairs): Winners: Toby Bunting & Luke Swan; R/Up: Frank Cutting & Jackie Cormack;

Mixed Triples: Winners: Peter Rowling, Jenny Carr & Bob Anderson; R/Up: Tom Presland, Tim Bailey & Noreen Codina;

Mixed Fours: Winners: Liz Temple, Paul Shorne, Stephen Shearing; Gill Howells; R/Up: Steve Burrell, Lynn Kessler, Geoff Drew & Anne Cutting.

Finally a big thank you to all who helped make the weekend a resounding success – we love it when a plan comes together!

BERKHAMSTED WIN SIX WATFORD & DISTRICT MENS FINALS !

In a friendly played away at Chalfont St Giles Berkhamsted were well walloped, losing by 101 shots to 65, only managing to win on one rink, but with some very close scores on others. Top rink was Carole Syms, Dagmar McKay and Brian Ralphs.

However Berkhamsted enjoyed its most successful year ever with wins in five singles competitions along with the Pairs title. Top performers for the Club were Kevin Clarke and Jack Bunting winning three titles each. Clarke won the Mens Singles, Champion of Champions Singles & Past Presidents Singles whilst Jack Bunting picked up the U25 & U18 Singles & Pairs title. Once again Berkhamsted hosted the finals day and want to thank all the members who created an impressive staging as well as organising a well-run day.

The FINALS results:

Mens Singles: Kevin Clarke 21 Vinny Payne 10; Champion of Champions: Kevin Clarke 21 John Wheatley 14; U25 Singles: Jack Bunting 21 Glenn Williams 8; U18 Singles: Jack Bunting 21 Toby Bunting 8; Officers Singles: Dave Richardson 21 Simon Johnson 3; Past Presidents: Kevin Clarke 21 David Neilson 10; Pairs: J Bunting & T Howard 16 V Payne & G Edwards 13; Fours: Bovingdon (Johnson) 13 Herts (Parker) 12; 2 Wood Triples: Garston (Coles) 17 Bushey (Sage) 15; Australian Pairs: Edwards & Element 23 Jenkins & Howard 8.

To finish the week Sunday’s match against Aylesbury was a pleasant enjoyable game equally poised throughout the afternoon. Of the four triples played each side won two and with only one shot distinguishing the winners, Berkhamsted, 67 shots to 66. The teams were: M Maynard P Burke A Jones – lost 14/18; N Codina F Cutting L Temple – won 14/12; M Young A Cutting K Maynard – lost 14/21; M Primo J Healy J Cheshire-Burke – who won 25/15 and were top rink.