The week started well for the Ladies with Lesley Brown winning the 2nd round of the County Singles by beating a lady from Garston by 21 shots to 17. Not to be outdone Jackie Cormack won her 2nd round heat in the same competition by beating an opponent from Herts Bowls Club. Success continued with Anne Furlong and Jackie Cormack winning their 3rd round match in the county pairs. They went into the last end all square and got 3 shots on the last end. Success continued for the Ladies by Lesley Brown & Janice Murgatroyd winning their 2nd round match, in the Watford & District Pairs by beating a pair from Kings Langley 19 -14. Unfortunately it was not all roses when Sarah Marshall lost to Mavis Hendry, of Bushey, in the 2nd round of the County Singles, losing on the final end.
Things did not go so well for the Men with David Brown losing his County Singles Match to Ken Woodward of Kitcheners 21-18. The Men also lost in the National Club Two Fours to a team from Datchworth by 36 – 54, but they all redeemed themselves by winning their heat of the Watford & District Griffin Cup away to Borehamwood by 50 shots to 29, the top team consisting of B Livesey, M Primo, D Steadman and D Brown who won 31-14.
The week finished at Berkhamsted on Saturday with the Annual Captain’s Day Match when a team put together by the Captains play against a team formed by the Vice –Captains. The theme for the Day was bright Colours which went very well with 50 club members taking part and in excess of 30 other club and family members came to watch. The game was played in very hot conditions with the Vice – Captain’s team coming out the victors on this occasion. All players and guests turned up in a fine array of colourful attire and this helped to make the day a very joyful one. After the game 65 members and guests sat down to an excellent fish and chip supper and extras followed by a very welcome choc ice. Top Rink for the Captains’ Team comprised John Bell, Paul Healy, Ann Cutting and Steve Burrell. For the Vice Captains, the winning trio was Paul Sims, Linda Ralphs and Brian Smith.
The players all coloured up ready for the match.
In the week ending 25th June the Men did not start the week well in the Men’s County League against Bushey for despite the efforts of Steve Burrell, Nigel Eckert, Brian Ralphs and Kevin Clarke who won 19-16 they lost overall gaining 2 points to Bushey’s 4. The Ladies fared better when Carole Dunn, Anne Furlong, Anne Cutting and Jackie Cormack, in the blistering heat on Wednesday beat a team from Hemel Hempstead by 1 shot only in the Watford & District Ladies League. It was so hot that the friendly team gave up after 10 ends and retired to the Clubhouse to cool off. In the evening, when it was cooler the team of Janice Murgatroyd, Liz Temple and Lesley Brown beat a team from Met Police 20-10 in the 2nd round of the Watford & Dist. Ladies Triples competition. Then it all went downhill when Berkhamsted played Bovingdon in a heat of the Dacorum Shield competition. The Men lost 35-13, the Mixed team lost 19-12 and the Ladies tried to even things up by winning by 1 shot, winning 17-16, but it was not enough to affect the final outcome. The men then played in the Jones cup against Harpenden. The Home team won 27-10 and the away team won at Harpenden by 25 shots to 11. Paul Sims and Peter Batchelor made their debut into the Watford & District Men’s pairs at Mill End. Unfortunately their debut did not go well when the Mill End pair beat them 34-7 despite Paul realising that he used to play football with one of the opponents at Mill End in the 1970’s, they showed no mercy. The week finished with a friendly game against Hemel Hempstead which had a nail biting finish with Berkhamsted winning by 1 shot the game ending 89-88 to Berkhamsted. The top rink for Berkhamsted were Greta Taylor, Ray Kessler and Ken Maynard.
On Thursday 22nd June, Berkhamsted Bowls Club played host to a friendly fixture between Hertfordshire Men and Bedfordshire. Here, Brian Ralphs, Berkhamsted Men’s Club Captain, welcomes Alan Sayers, Men’s President of Hertfordshire Bowls, and Terry Wilkinson, Men’s President of Bowls Bedfordshire to the club. Hertfordshire convincingly won by 140 shots to 88.
