A bumber opening day edition, with updates for your diary, match reports and more.
News
The selectors have reviewed and updated members handicaps for the rest of this season. With the exception of scratch players the list is as follows:
| Handicap of 1 | Handicap of 2 | Handicap of 3 | Handicap of 4 |
| Gareth Phil B Barry C John Des Keith H Luke Mark Tony John M Alvyn | Martin B Lou Paul Les | Donna Andy N Craig Val Hilary John T Andy W | Graham A Peter B Suzanne B George Lyn Claire Jackie Pat Martin L |
Reminders
Roll-ups are on Wednesdays starting at 18:15, Fridays starting at 19:00 and most Saturdays (fixtures permitting) starting at 14:00. If you wish to play please turn up and sign in at least fifteen minutes before the start of the matches so that the organiser can arrange the teams. Once you have picked a disc and memorised your rink and number, please return the disc to the organiser before the start of your match.
1.0 Dates for the Diary: May – June
Please find below a summary of events, friendly matches and opportunities to assist our club. Details concerning Southampton and District League matches are published in the annual fixture list and are not repeated here.
PPBC Events
| From 11 May | Monday morning mixed triples league | See noticeboard for details of teams and fixture list |
| 27 June | Race Night | More details to follow, having signed up on the race night sheet, remember to name your horse when paying for your tickets at the bar. |
Advance Notice – 22 August Save the date
22 August Southampton Salty Sea Dogs
An evening of shanties and songs of the sea. Southampton’s equivalent of Fisherman’s Friends is a crew of thirty men that perform locally and raise money to support the Hamble Lifeboat.
More details to follow
Friendlies
| 17 May | County (Away) | Dress code Whites. 6 rinks of mixed triples. Sign-up sheet is on the noticeboard. |
| 24 May | Bristol v SDBA (Home) | One full rink from PPBC. Please see Lloyd if you want to be considered for selection. |
2.0 PPBC Volunteers – getting ready for opening day.
Everyone who comes to the club, be it members or visiting players, experience a friendly welcome, a well-kept and maintained facility and a very good green. This is not by accident, but is in large part due to the club’s volunteers who work throughout the year to ensure that our grounds and facilities are the envy of many and enjoyed by all. Running up to opening day, our intrepid reporter met with some of our volunteers in order to discover exactly what was involved.
Pete has for several years been the organiser of the gardening club that meet on Wednesday mornings and the team of volunteers has grown with contributions from Angie, Martin Leach, Donna, Mark, Lloyd and Karen. “We are seeking to rebrand ourselves,” said Karen, “I like ‘wetting my plants’ (I think that was what she said – Ed), but in the end we agreed on “The Weed Warriors”.
It is not just the flowerbeds and pots that get regular attention, in getting ready for opening day, Martin and Donna weeded the carpark while Lloyd cut and tidied the grass area to make overflow parking easier. Clearly gardening is an energy sapping activity, care is taken to ensure that hydration and calorific intake of the volunteers is more than adequately maintained (see below).
It would appear that our weed warriers are not deterred by the local forecast either…this warning message recently appeared on a noticeboard….
The team preparing the green for opening day also have put in a shift, from cleaning out the ditches and installing rubber matting, to painting the wall and rink markers as well as replacing the woodwork for the disabled access point. Led by Lloyd with help from Phil Street, Eddie and Pete supported by Mark’s woodwork, the team ensured that the green looked immaculate for the first match of the season.
The maintenance team, Mark and Martin Bell, took on the task of repairing the two covered bench areas on the left hand side of the green. The wet winter had left them in a rather sorry state and repairs were essential to ensure that they would be weather proof for the whole season. Martin very kindly supplied the wood, and following repairs Karen took a short break from gardening to paint the walls.
3.0 Match Reports
Short Mat Pairs and Singles Final April 8
A warm and balmy evening brought out the crowds to watch the finals of the short mat competitions, starting with the pairs.
In the pairs, Charlie Cox and Phil Bascombe were up against Angie Weir and Barry Cox. To the consternation of some in the crowd, Angie had decided to change her woods following her singles semi-final against Charlie, two days previously. Later she revealed that despite winning her singles semi-final she found that the fact that both sets of woods were identical somewhat confusing. Despite this late change, after five ends, Angie and Barry were leading 8 – 1, with Charlie often having to play ditch weight shots to try to disturb the head. The ninth end proved to be the start of a recovery, Charlie and Phil scoring 4, reducing the deficit to a single shot, Angie and Barry scored two in the next end so that after ten ends they were leading 11 – 8. Phil was now consistently finding his length and he and Charlie took the lead for the first time after the twelfth end. Two ends later it was all over Charlie and Phil having built an unassailable lead of 17 – 11. A fantastic game played in great spirit, Charlie often congratulating his Grandad for a good shot, was enjoyed by all.
The singles finalists were Angie and John Bambrough. Between matches the mat was moved and Angie reverted to her usual indoor woods. After two trial ends the game began in earnest, the first five ends were nip and tuck with the scores level at 5 each. Angie then had two very good ends to take a 10 – 5 lead before John won the next three so that after ten ends, Angie’s lead was down to a single point, 10 – 9. You could have heard a pin drop, even Bill was trying to whisper. Angie, now started to pull away, her bowling was accurate and consistent and by the fourteenth end she had an unassailable lead of 16 – 11. Another great game of high quality, a fitting end to the short mat season. It will all begin again in October.
Opening Day 11 April
A day of commemoration and celebration started with Mo Hawkins planting a rhododendron in memory of Katherine Page, long serving club treasurer and Ladies Southampton and District representative, a clematis in memory of Jean Webb, former club president, Ladies Captain and club coach and a clematis in memory of Steve Sweed, a long time bowling member of the club. The plants were sourced with kind and generous donations from club members.
In keeping with tradition, the club photo was taken at 2:00pm, before the Chairman opened the green by rolling the first wood. The members then arranged themselves around the green with one foot in the ditch for the spider. Following a count of three everyone sent their first wood of the season towards the centre of the green and once the dust had settled it was clear that Mark was closest to the spider and he duly won a bottle of Scotch.
The opening day match between the Chairman and Match Secretary, featured five rinks of triples playing 15 ends. Everyone struggled at first, not just because at the start of the season, rinks are generally slow and straight, but also because of the significant transition from playing short-mat to having to work quite hard to find a decent length. The Match Secretary’s team were ultimately victorious winning 4 rinks, with the Chairman’s best rink being his own (Rink 4 Lloyd, Gareth and Pat/Donna, and Keiths best rink being number 6 (Angie, Phil S and Peter B).
Following the conclusion of the match, tea was served with a range of cakes baked by Karen, Jackie, Rachel and John D, before the raffle was held after which Lou’s superb opening day cake (see the top of the newsletter) was ceremoniously cut and passed out for members to take home with them.
Finally, the day ended with Martin Leach having the opportunity to bowl for the first time on the green. He spent the winter playing short mat and had only bowled outdoors once in March’s friendly match at Totton and Eling. Already a valued member of the club, he defintiely has the look of an excellent bowler.*
Thus the day finally came to a close; it had started with commemorating those no longer with us and finished with welcoming a new member onto our green – the circle is complete.
*Post opening day, Martin played in the Muddiman Trophy, he was in the winning team alongside Mo, John Doyle and Andy Wilso. Without doubt, to get your name on an Honours Board with only four hours on the Green must be a new record – Ed.
3.0 Thank you
Those attending to Short mat finals wish to thank Lloyd for providing sandwiches and Lloyd, Pete and Paul for organising the short mat events over the last six months.
All those that entered the Grand National Sweepstake would like to thank Rachel for organising it, especially the winners: 1st Dave Stonely (on ‘I am Maximus’), 2nd ‘Never Win’ Keith (on ‘Iroko’) and 3rd Mark (on ‘Jordans’), unfortunately Imperial Saint (for some reason supported by many in the club) only finished 13th .
The contributions to this issue from Mark, Gareth and Karen are gratefully acknowledged.
If you want to thank someone for their contributions to the club please let the editors know.
4.0 And finally…
The entertainments sub-committee is aware that several members are often unavailable for matches on Saturdays and midweek as they unfortunately have season tickets for Southampton FC. In discussing reasons why some of our members prefer the inevitable pain or fleeting joy of going to St Mary’s compared to a very similar experience bowling woods, the committee concluded that a significant difference is that we don’t have a club song or generally engage in singing before, during and after our matches. The suggested solution to this problem is to form PPBC (Pirrie Park Bowling Choir) that will sit on the decking and provide additional short musical entertainment during the course of a game. The extensive repertoire for the choir includes excerpts from:
‘Green green grass of home’ (Tom Jones 1966): As the team steps onto the green at the start of the match.
‘Three is a magic number’ (Bob Dorough 1973): In full rinks, when the Three actually manages to meet the exact requirements of their Skip.
‘Please Forgive Me’ (David Gray 1998): For the rare occasions someone’s wood has the wrong bias.
‘Skip to my Lou’ (American folk song and dance c1840): When a Skip momentarily leaves the green.
‘Like a rolling stone’ (Bob Dylan 1965): Every time a wood goes in the ditch.
‘Hit the road Jack’ (Ray Charles 1960): Every time a Jack goes in the ditch.
‘Yellow’ (Coldplay 2000): In celebration of the use of non-white Jacks.
As an alternative to ‘Green green grass of home’, the sub-committee also considered establishing an orchestra to play ‘Greensleeves’ (King Henry VIII 1550) but shelved the idea when they realised the tune had royalties associated with it.
Contact us
All contributions, including other songs for the choir, welcome, the editors can be contacted via email (pll@soton.ac.uk) or letter placed on the mail noticeboard in the corridor by the entrance to the bar.
Thanks Paul, I look forward to your next letter.
always nice to read about what’s on and a few shall we say comical comments.