The venue for the second
ever T & D Carpet Bowls holiday was the Lakeside Coastal
Resort on Hayling Island.
This was the first time anyone
had ever taken a carpet bowls event to Lakeside, so although
we had visited the resort ourselves, there was still an element
of the unknown.
Luckily there was no need for
any concern, the bowls hall was excellent as was everything connected
the venue, especially the staff who could not have been more
accommodating, which included them arranging to move breakfast
to half an hour earlier so that we could start bowling at 9.00.
All in all we had more than
50 pairs with us to bowl as well as a handful of non-bowlers
who also came along with us purely for the break.
The extra room afforded us,
by having the use of the bowls hall, meant that we were able
to bring in additional mats and thereby allow everyone more games.
The main event of the week, the Pairs competition, was run over
2 days. On Tuesday all the teams had 4 games and on Thursday
everyone had another 3 round robin games, followed by the knockout
stage.
This left Wednesday free for
an optional Fours competition in the morning, after which everyone
had the afternoon to get out and about.
Tuesday - Pairs Day 1
The first round of
games saw a total of 27 teams getting the week off to a winning
start. However there was a huge variation in the winning scores.
While 3 teams had the narrowest of wins at 5-4, there were a
few teams who had rather more spectacular results. Leading
the way with 25 shots were George & Joy Kitchen (including
2 sixes!), followed by Brian Archer & Pat Phillips and
Keith & Maureen Batson with 19 shots each.
The completion of the second
round of games saw the number of teams with a perfect record
reduced to 15. George & Joy Kitchen continued to lead
the way with 36 shots, Brian Archer & Pat Phillips remained
in second place on 27 shots while Tony & Val Candler
moved up into third with 24 shots to their name.
Only 11 teams were left with
a 100% record after the third round of games were done and it
was all change at the top. The lead was held jointly by Tony
& Val Candler and Peter & Joyce Holbrow each
with 34 shots for and 8 against, while in 3rd place Brian
Archer & Pat Phillips had the same number of shots for,
as the leaders, but just 1 more against.
The fourth and final round
of Tuesday's games saw yet more perfect records bite the dust.
By the time everyone had finished for the day there were only
4 remaining teams who had won all of their games. Tony &
Val Candler (8 points, 45 shots) continued to lead the way,
followed by Colin & Jean Love (8 points, 40 shots),
while David & Lesley Ford (8 points, 39 shots) were
third and in fourth place were Margaret Horwood & Paul
Daniels (8 points, 34 shots).
Wednesday - Fours
With just a morning in which to play the competition, there would
only be time for 2 round robin games before a short knockout
stage. This meant that only the teams who won both of their games
would have done enough to go through and they were going to have
to make the most of their opportunities to get decent wins under
their belts in order to assure themselves of qualification.
Even though the competition
was optional extra the majority of people chose to take part
with 20 teams competing in the initial phase.
In the end, surprisingly, there
were only 5 teams who managed to win both their games and with
only 4 going through to the semi-finals one team ended up being
cruelly robbed of their rightful place in the next round by virtue
of a single shot and that team was mine, c'est la vie.
The top qualifiers were Reg
& Barbara Neate and Keith & Maureen Batson, second
were Tricia Jones, Audrey Atkins and Chris & Shirley Tilbrook,
third place went to Peter & Margaret Jarvis and Tony &
Val Candler and fourth were Colin & Jean Love, Eva
Rolfe and Margaret Moore.
The semi-finals saw the Love/Rolfe/Moore
team defeat the Neate/Batson team 11-5, after having taken
a comfortable 9-0 lead early on. Meanwhile a very tight game
in the second match saw Jones/Atkins/Tilbrook finally
beat Jarvis/Chandler 6-4 in a game that went down to the
final wood.
The Final was another close
game which ended 6-4 in favour of Colin & Jean Love, Eva
Rolfe and Margaret Moore with Tricia Jones, Audrey Atkins
and Chris & Shirley Tilbrook as runners-up.
Thursday - Pairs Day 2
After a day long interlude
it was back to the main business of the Pairs competition for
the final full day of the holiday.
The first round of bowls for
the day, and the fifth of the competition saw wins for all four
teams with perfect records. Tony & Val Candler (10
points, 62 shots) still led the way, while David & Lesley
Ford (10 points, 49 shots) had moved up into second, just
ahead of Colin & Jean Love (10 points, 48 shots),
and in fourth place were Margaret Horwood & Paul Daniels
(10 points, 40 shots).
The sixth set of games saw
the same four teams maintaining their winning streaks, all holding
the same positions within the top four. And with one game still
to go they had already secured their spots in the top eight,
guaranteeing their places in the knockout stage. They would be
joined by Peter & Joyce Holbrow who had dropped just
1 point so far.
The final round robin games
once again saw the top four teams win to end with the maximum
14 points. The final positions remained as they had been most
of the way through the day with Tony & Val Candler finishing
first, followed by David & Lesley Ford with Colin
& Jean Love third and Margaret Horwood & Paul
Daniels in fourth spot. Rounding out the teams who qualified
for the next stage were Brian & Grace Crump on 12
points, Peter & Joyce Holbrow on 11 points, and Betty
& Lewis Claxton and Freddie & Peggy Way, the
two of whom were the best group of some 11 teams who finished
on 10 points.
Knockout Stages
Betty & Lewis Claxton
eased to a 13-1 win over David & Lesley Ford. Margaret
Horwood & Paul Daniels needed a last end win to take
victory over Brian & Grace Crump 8-5.
Colin & Jean Love took a comfortable 10-1 win over
Peter & Joyce Holbrow. And finally there was the match-up
between the top and last qualifiers. Tony & Val Candler
had won all their games while Freddie & Peggy Way
had squeezed through by virtue of a mere 5 shots. By all accounts
the Ways had not expected to go through because Freddie had to
be dragged back from his chalet where he had been getting ready
for an afternoon nap. Despite this Freddie and Peggy won all
the ends and finished 8-0 up to make their way through to the
Semis.
Colin & Jean Love, having already won the Fours, would
have been most people's favourites to win and indeed they were
4-3 up after 3 ends of their Semi-Final against Betty &
Lewis Claxton, but the Claxtons won the rest of the ends
and finished 10-4 winners. In the second game Margaret Horwood
& Paul Daniels took a 9-1 win over Freddie & Peggy
Way.
And so to the final which,
I can assure you was as closely fought a game as you could hope
to see, I know this because I was in it, with myself and Margaret
Horwood taking on Betty & Lewis Claxton. The seven
end game swung back and forth as each team took a single shot
on alternate ends. In the end Betty & Lewis Claxton
took the game 4-3. It was a superb game and a fitting end to
an excellent week's bowling.
The full results of the week's
bowling can be found here. |
And
to top the week off we are very pleased to say that we raised
£230 on our draw, in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support.
We would like to thank everyone who supported this very worthy
cause.
And Finally
All that remains is to thank everyone for their support of the
event and for all the very kind comments we received over the
week. We hope that we will see you all again very soon.
tanddcarpetbowls@gmail.com
2nd
August 2007
Addendum
Since
the holiday we have had a number of Thank You notes from various
people who were with us at Hayling Island.
It is extraordinarily
gratifying to hear how pleased everyone was and we would just
like to once again thank everyone for their kind words.
10th
August 2007 |