Press

A busy week started with a win for 2 Ladies teams in the County Fours Competition. Sarah Marshall, Linda Ralphs, Liz Temple and Lesley Brown beat a team from Bushey 22 shots to 13 and Carole Dunn, Mary Millar, Anne Furlong and Jackie Cormack beat a team from Garston 26 – 13. Both teams now progress to the 2nd round. Berkhamsted then hosted Townsend for a friendly game but lost to them 83 – 74 with a top team of Jean Greenfield, Marion Maynard, Del Root and Ken Maynard.

The men did not fare so well and were beaten in the Griffin Cup by Potten End, going down 33 – 41. However the men redeemed themselves when Alan Jones & Ken Maynard beat a pair from Welwyn Garden City in the St. Albans & District Pairs Competition in a close fought game by 20 shots to 19. Further success came in the Herts Men’s Top Ten competition with a win over Oak Hill, 6 points to 2, and now travel to Harperbury for the next round on May 27th.

We have entered the ‘Tony Allcock over 60’s Double rink’ competition and in the first round beat Herts by 50-27; the top team being Carole Dunn, Linda Ralphs, Bill Howells and Wally Dunn. The men finished the week with two more wins: one in the National Club 2X4’s against Bushey which they won by 43-25 with a top team of Maurice Primo, Ray Kessler, David Scoot and David Brown, and in the County Triples a team of Steve Burrell, David Brown and Kevin Clarke beat a team from Hemel Hempstead.

To end a really busy week Berkhamsted played 2 friendly matches: one against Croxley Guild, which they won by 98 shots to 71 with a top team of Alan Jones, Janice Murgatroyd and Jackie Cormack, and the second, against Pavillion, was won by 64 shots to 43 helped by a top rink of Liz Baker, Christine Sims and Tony Smart.

Altogether a very successful week for the club.

On Tuesday the men travelled to our nearest rivals Kitchener’s BC for a four rink match, we ended up winning on three of the four rinks with the overall score 78 to 73; the top rink were Dave Sear, Bill Howells, John Webb and Kevin Clarke.
On Saturday we travelled to Watford BC for a four rink triples match and won by 83 shots to 54. Margaret Goodwin, Janice Murgatroyd and Brian Ralphs were the top rink.
On Sunday we hosted Harpenden BC for a five rink triples match and posted a 101 to 83 win. The top rink players were Tony Smart, Anne Cutting and Steve Burrell who fought back from 11-3 down to eventually win 23 – 12.
On a personal note Sarah Marshall played in the Weston Super Mare Tournament for Visually Impaired bowlers during the past week. We are proud to announce she was again successful in winning all her matches to retain the Trophy for Class B1 Visually Impaired bowlers.

PRESS REPORT Monday 15th July 2013

“Formidable Mary and the Berkhamsted Ladies”

Mary Clarke along with several other female bowlers of the Berkhamsted Club have enjoyed their best week yet in the W & D Ladies competitions. Starting off with her singles match against Tring’s Lynda Boniface Mary had a convincing win; then partnering Carole Dunn, Anne Furlong and Jackie Cormack, Mary led the quartet to a successful conclusion playing in the Ladies League against Kings Langley Ladies. Mary then paired up with Carole Dunn (again) this time in the W & D Pairs to compete against fellow Berkhamsted bowlers Lesley Brown and Janice Murgatroyd it was a close fought match ending in 1 shot victory for Mary and Carole. Mary then turned her sights onto the W & D Triples competition, she teamed up with Anne Cutting and Mary Cave to play away at Cassiobury BC the result again went in the Berkhamsted teams favour quite comfortably. Then to cap it all off Mary teamed up with another two Berkhamsted members (Marion Maynard and Janet Jackson)to compete in the Potten End Ladies Triples Gala on Saturday unfortunately they were bested into second place.

Despite all this the Berkhamsted men were not to be out done they also had two pairs in the quarter finals of the W & D Pairs – David Brown / Kevin Clarke and Steve Burrell / Brian Smith, again it was a close fought match with Brown and Clarke edging out Burrell and Smith.With all these competitive matches going on Berkhamsted still managed to fit in two Friendly games as well – Wednesday evening against Wingrave BC the heroic efforts of husband and wife team Marion and Ken Maynard with Jane Low were unable to stop an 87 shot to 75 defeat for the Berkhamsted team, but then on the hottest day of the season so far Brian Smith, Eric Browitt and Derek Sandford led the Berkhamsted team to a 78 – 62 victory against Borehamwood BC.

PRESS REPORT Monday 8th July 2013

Carole Dunn, Anne Furlong and Jackie Cormack had a good start to their defence of the W & D Ladies Triples title by beating a team from Herts Club 30 shots to 10, Anne and Jackie continued this good form when they had a convincing win in the W & D Pairs Competition beating a duo from Potten End by 11 shots. In their W & D League / Friendly match against Owls the Berkhamsted Ladies team of Carole Dunn, Anne Furlong, Anne Cutting, Judy Kenyon, Marion Maynard, Joan Luther, Beryl Parsons and Liz Temple won on bothrinks.

Berkhamsted’s Club Friendly fixtures against Chessvale BC mid-week and Amersham BC over the weekend brought mixed results; Chessvale’s green proved to taxing for the Berkhamsted side losing on 4 of the 5 rinks played, It was only the herculean efforts of Bill Sharpling, Jean Greenfield, Dave Sear and skipper Maurice Primo winning 25 – 18 on their rink that brought any pride to the visitors. Then on Sunday Berkhamsted won on 3 of the 4 rinks played against visitors Amersham; perhaps it was the heat that the players had to contend with that led to the Home side winning 72 – 59, top rink consisted of 5 players (one player had to retire half way through) Anne Furlong, Anne Cutting, and Janet Jackson were ably supported by Frank Furlong and Steve Burrell.

PRESS REPORT MONDAY 1st July 2013

On the personal side; in their latest round of the W & D Pairs competition Steve Burrell and Brian Smith won through 18 – 13 after a thrilling game against close rival Kitchener’s Bowls Club. Moving on to the two Club reports there was mixed results mid-week there was a 4 rink friendly against Chesham which saw the efforts of Carole Dunn, Brian Ralphs, Allan Dann and John Webb help Berkhamsted to an 84 – 61 shot win, then on Sunday Berkhamsted travelled to played against local opposition Hazells of Aylesbury in a friendly triples match, this was a new fixture between the two clubs and despite losing narrowly Berkhamsted thoroughly enjoyed the fine hospitality and President Kevin commented on the superb facilities and continued by saying Berkhamsted was looking forward to their next encounter where they will really need to try harder. Top rink for Berkhamsted included David Biggerstaff, Liz Temple and Kevin Clarke and their 21 shots to 12 efforts went a long way towards the final score of 82 – 95 in favour of the opposition.

We are delighted and very proud to say we have had the honour of becoming Runners Up in Bowls England’s Club of the Year competition for 2012. We were narrowly beaten to the top prize by Clarence Bowls Club from Somerset who themselves were runners up last year.

“Following a lengthy process we won through the East Region entrants and then came up against the other regional winners before being visited by Bowls England ” said Club Secretary Lesley Brown. “We impressed them greatly with our fantastic recruitment drive, our new equipment and the setting up of our U18 section of which we are hugely proud” she continued. “Over the past two years we have worked hard and been more creative in trying to raise the profile of our club to attract a wider generation of players, it looks like it may be paying off” she finished.

Tony Alcock MBE, Bowls England Chief Executive acknowledged this in his letter to the Club thanking them for their support of the game and congratulating them on the exceptionally high standard they had achieved.

As well as the D’Arcy Drayton Cup the Club wins several other prizes including: two sets of Drakes Pride Bowls, £150 prize money and a match against a visiting Friends of England Bowling Team

We entered the competition back in June but didn’t hear anything until September when Bowls England representative Brenda Green came to visit us. She spent a good two hours in our company with a selected team of members who showed her around and told her of our achievements this season.

We kept our fingers crossed after putting on a good show and one month later we heard the good news. It would be fantastic to go one step further next year and win the title – WE CAN DO IT!

Congratulations to everyone who played a big or small part in making it happen

Please click on the link below if you would like to read the full letter from Bowls England:

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