Year: 2015

AGM
The AGM for the club will be held on the 25th of January 2016 @ the Churchtown Conservative Club, commencing at 8.00pm
Any proposals to be put forward at the meeting should be with me in writing, email or letter, by the 14th of January 2016
The club will have 2 new teams for the 2016 season
1;- A friday evening team playing in the Burscough league captained by Chris Harding
2;- A mixed team playing in the Maghull league on a Monday evening captained by Sue Davies

These teams are in addition to our established teams.
LV League
The eagles captained by Chris Harding
The Falcons captained by Ray Sutton
The Harriers Captained by John Stennett

Aughton League Vets
The Kites captained by Richard Rawcliffe
The Hawks Captained by George Hitchmough

Southport Vets League
The Merlins Captained by George Hitchmough

Southport Parks League
The Kites Captained by Brian Mycock

The Burscough League
The Ospreys Captained by Steve Mann

It would be helpful to both the team captains and myself as Secretary if you could indicate what teams you would like to play for at the AGM or as soon as possible thereafter.
Regards George Hitchmough Secretary

Awards Evening 2015
Many thanks to all those members and guests who attended the Club’s awards and social evening last Saturday. Thanks must also go to the Chairman and Committee of the Churchtown Conservative Club for the use of their excellent facilities .
The evening, which was hosted by Chris Harding, began with the club awards, which were presented by our President, Ray Sutton.
In addition to the presentation of prizes for the Club’s competitions, which have been reported on the website throughout the season, awards were also presented to the Merit winners for each of the Club’s teams. These were:-
Eagles (LV Premier Division) – Mike Milne
Falcons (LV 1st Division) – Dave Caunce
Harriers (LV 1st Division) – Jim Finnimore
Ospreys (Burscough 2nd Div) – Mark Rowlinson
Kites (Parks 1st Division) – Jim Halsall
Kestrels (Aughton 1st Division) – Jim Finnimore
Hawks (Aughton 3rd Division) – George Hitchmough
Merlins (Southport Vets 3rd Division) – Jim Finnimore
The presentation of prizes concluded with the announcement by the Club Chairman, Chris Harding, of the Club’s special awards. The first award is for the Team of the Year, which for 2015 went to the Kites. This team, captained by Brian Mycock, had been promoted to the 1st Division of the Southport Parks League for 2015 and performed creditably to end the season in 4th position. The Club Member of the Year award went to John Stennett in recognition of all his hard work on behalf of the Club over many years, including captaining the Harriers in the LV League.
This year there was an extra special announcement when it was revealed that Jim Finnimore had been made a Life Member of the Club. This well-deserved honour is to recognize the outstanding contribution that Jim has made to the Club over a number of years.
Photographs to follow

THE GREEN IS NOW CLOSED.

SEPTEMBER ROUND ROBIN
Sunday saw 20 members attend the final weekend event of the season. After some closely fought games, third place went to Mike Milne with +12 and 2 wins. Connie Southern took second prize with the same +12 aggregate but with three wins, whilst 1st place went to Club President Ray Sutton by one point with a score of +13.

Many thanks to all those members who have supported the club competitions and round robins this season, all of which have been well-attended. Members are reminded that the popular midweek round robins, organised by Jim Finnimore, will continue for the next two weeks, with the last event of the season taking place on Friday 2nd October, 10.00am start.

GREEN CLOSURE
The green will remain open for the weekend of Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th October, after which it will be closed to allow our contractor access to carry out the annual end of season maintenance work. I am sure members will agree that the green has been in excellent condition this season, thanks to the specialist work carried out by Andrew Church and Lancashire Turf Supplies, in addition to the regular cutting carried out by our greensman. The Club are also greatly indebted to one of our Honorary Vice-Presidents, Mr.Bernard O’Malley and Nationwide Produce, for the continued financial support towards the costs incurred in keeping the green in such fine condition.

AWARDS EVENING
Please remember to order your tickets for the Club’s Awards Evening, which will take place at the Churchtown Conservative Club on Saturday 17th October, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced just £5.00 and can be obtained by any Committee Member or Team Captain.

THE BERNARD O’MALLEY VICE-PRESIDENT’S TROPHY
Saturday saw the club hosting it’s first junior open singles competition, which attracted entries from Formby, Ormskirk, Leyland, Wigan and Shevington, in addition to bowlers from local clubs Hesketh Arms, Botanic Gardens, Scarisbrick Bowling Club and Mere Brow.
The early stages of the competition saw some close battles, including an excellent preliminary round game between Archie Rimmer (Scarisbrick Bowling Club) and Matthew Brown (Fox Lane, Leyland), with Archie emerging the winner by a narrow 21-19 margin. Archie was involved in another tough game in the last 16 as he just lost out to his clubmate James Catton by the same 21-19 scoreline. Other notable games in this round were wins for Kes Adams (Scarisbrick B.C.) against Luke Sinnott (Formby Sports & Social) and a 21-19 success for Matty Greenwood (Mere Brow) against Matthew Gill (Windmill, Ormskirk).
Following his win against Luke Sinnott, Kes Adams progressed to the semi-finals in the top half of the draw with a 21-14 win against Luke Dawes (Botanic Gardens). His semi-final opponent was Luke’s brother Kyle, representing the host club and therefore one of the favourites to take the title. Kes started strongly in the semi-final, however, winning 10 out of the first 12 ends to establish a 13-3 advantage. Although Kyle fought back with a couple of 2s the deficit was too much to overcome and Kes ran out a 21-10 winner.
In the bottom half of the draw, Matty Greenwood followed up his narrow victory against Matthew Gill with a more comfortable 21-14 win against Philip Rawlins (Formby Sports & Social). This took him into the semi-final, where his opponent was another homester, Fergal Wright. Fergal had reached this stage with wins against Danny Hurst (Shevington) and Jack Harrison (Scarisbrick B.C.) Matty and Fergal are both members of the successful Botanic Gardens junior team and this was expected to be a close contest but when leading 10-3, Matty appeared to be favourite. However, trailing 10-3 and with Matty counting with a bowl next to the jack, Fergal rested this bowl out to leave himself with two. This was to prove a turning point as Fergal won the next seven ends, to take control of the match and lead 15-10. Although Matty fought back, winning three out of the next five ends, it was Fergal who reached the final, the scoreline being 21-14.
The outcome of the final was hard to predict but Fergal again started slowly and Kes looked to have the final under control when leading 12-4. As in his semi-final, Fergal fought back and with the help of four 2s in eight ends drew level at 15-15. From this point, the contest was nip and tuck with neither player able to find the leads to finish their opponent off but in the end it was Fergal who found the winning bowl on a long mark to win a hard fought final 21-19 to become the first winner of the Bernard O’Malley Vice-President’s Trophy.

At the presentation, Chris Harding, Chairman of the Hesketh Arms Bowling Club, thanked the Club’s Honorary Vice-President, Mr.Bernard O’Malley for all his support towards the club over a number of years and for agreeing to have this tournament held in recognition of his contribution towards the club.

He went on to thank all those who had helped in the planning and organisation of the event, including the Committee of the Hesketh Arms Bowling Club, George Hitchmough, Mike Milne, Ian Gill.

Special thanks are especially due to Graham Pickavance, who was our referee for the day. Finally, Chris thanked all the measurers and markers who had helped to ensure that the competition ran smoothly.

The Club look forward to holding this event again in 2016

AUGUST ROUND ROBIN

The Round Robin held on Sunday 30th August saw a good turnout of 26 members taking part. In 4th place, with a score of +10, was Pat Miller. Our President, Ray Sutton, was 3rd on +13 with Jim Finnimore taking 2nd place with +18. The winner by 3 clear points, however, was Dave Bedford with an impressive aggregate of +21.

The end of Summer Newsletter is avaiable on the Newsletter page or by clicking on the link below

NewsletterSummer15

CHAMPIONSHIP CUP

22 members attended the club on Sunday to compete for the Championship Cup, the final club competition of the season.
Despite a tough draw, Jim Finnimore progressed to the final in the top half of the draw, enjoying good wins against Alex Rimmer (21-19), Richard Rawcliffe (21-15), Ray Sutton (21-8) and Dave Bedford (21-15). The bottom half of the draw saw Brian Sutton reach the final of this competition for the second time in three years with wins against Brian Jones (21-20), Pat Jones (21-17) and Kyle Dawes (21-9).

In the final, Jim started well, winning the first three ends to cancel out the two chalk handicap he was conceding, to lead 6-4. Brian fought back though and won five of the next six ends to leave the scores level at 9-9. At this stage, however, Jim hit a purple patch and won eight consecutive ends to claim victory with a comfortable 21-9 scoreline. Congratulations to Jim on winning this title for the second time, having previously won it in 2011.

A consolation event was held for those knocked out in their first game and this was won by Judith Farrell with a 15-11 win in the final against Wendy McLoughlin.

Many thanks to all those members who have supported the club competitions this season, which have again been well-attended.

Our next weekend event will be a round robin next Sunday, 30th August, starting at 2.00pm.