Maldon Bowling Club - Lawn Bowls

Final CMBL report from Barry McDonagh Division 1

Maldon went into the last game against Chelmsford B hoping to finish with a win.
Paul Callow, Ron Thackray, Ken Varney and Dave Torrice had a close game.
7 - 2 up after 7 ends, they found themselves 7 - 11 six ends later. But true to form they dug in to carve out a 14 - 12 victory.
The other rink of Graham Smith, Cherry Richardson, Steve Morrison and Barry McDonagh opened up an 8 - 0 lead and never looked back.
Always in the lead they went into the final two ends seven shots ahead.
Chelmsford managed to get 5 shots on the last two ends to give Maldon a 17 - 15 win.
So a final score of 31 shots to 27 gave Maldon a match result of 8 - 0.
The result meant Maldon finished in a creditable third place in the league.
So a huge thankyou to ALL the squad members for making it a very enjoyable season.
The spirit within the squad has been first rate and undoubtedly resulted in the team winning some very tough matches.

Friendly match report from Peter Ward
Maldon v Burnham Hillside.

We managed to turn down the heat for this game on Saturday although it was quite sticky.
On rink 2 Keith, Phil and Marie put up a spirited defence but ended 15 to 7 down.
Keith and Phil both said Marie played very well.
On rink 3 Graham Parker, Lynn Stothard and Peter Pask won 18 to 12.
On rink 4 Peter Saunders and Chris and Sue Timcke came second 16 to 9 down.
On rink 5 Brenda and Peter Ward with Maurice Willett won 20 to 13.
So as usual we won on two rinks and lost on two, but overall with only a 2 shot loss.
It was a very nice day played against very friendly people.
The other story of the day was the half time food Brenda laid on, 3 different homemade cakes, sandwiches, crisps, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, as this is what we get at Burnham.

CMBL Match Report: Maldon C v Gt Baddow.
To help Andy Evans with his complaints re the author’s usual in depth match reports this is going to be short and sweet.
Going into this match we had a mathematical chance of staying up but needed help from the other teams around us.
We didn’t get it and so despite an enjoyable last game of the season we went down losing by ONE SHOT!!!! (AGAIN)
We will bounce back next season.

C&D Match Report: Maldon C v Gt Baddow.
After an administrative error in the first game v Gt Baddow which resulted in a reverse of our 7-3 win we double-checked our team's registration and were determined to take the points this time.
Maurice lead his rink of Alan, Brian C, and Tony B out to a strong start and were 8-4 up on the 8th end. Dropping a 3 on the next end brought Gt Baddow right back but this was the closest they got to going ahead as Maurice and his 3 trusty teammates pulled away from the 10th end and ending up with a comfortable 21-11 win and 2 points secured.
Barney, Simon, Peter Pask and Graham P had a great start with 5 unanswered ends and being 7 up.
Dropping a 6 deflated the Maldon boys somewhat. However, we pulled our socks up and were in front all the way to end 16 when Gt Baddow took a one shot lead.
Going into the 18th end it was all square at 18 all and we were boosted in confidence with Maurice’s rink in a comfortable lead so to drop 2 shots through an unkind wick was frustrating. So going down 18-20.
Richard B skipped again guiding Graham S at 3 Malcolm and Phil A.
As is becoming a habit for Richard this game was tight across all 18 ends. At no point was either team ahead by more than 3 shots. Going into the 18th end Maldon were 2 shots adrift. As usual the other two rinks had finished and were enjoying their first post game beverage while keeping an eye on this last rink.
The two shot Baddow advantage was reduced to one. So a one shot loss.
Although losing on two rinks Maurice’s 10 shot win guaranteed the aggregate score and Maldon walked away with a 6-4 win.

Commiserations to Andy Squire who's just lost out on a place in the O60s National Final by one shot, finishing his semi-final match 20-21.
Well done on making it that far - a great achievement 👏

Leamington update:

Andy Squire wins his quarter-final match against a bowler from Warwickshire, 21-20.
No mean feat in this heat 🥵
Congratulations Andy 👏
Tomorrow morning he'll play in the National Semi-finals...we wish him the very best of luck!

Woohoo! Update from the National Finals at Leamington Spa.
Andy Squire isn't letting the extreme temperature affect his bowling.
He's beaten a bowler from Kent in the O60s singles this morning, 21-16, and will play again this afternoon at 2.45pm.
Good luck Andy, keep cool 😎

Yesterday was our President's Invitation Day.
Our President, Carole Ash, invited all members who give tirelessly of their time to make our club the brilliant club that it is.
So, the committee members, greenkeeping team, maintenance and gardening team took to the green with team captains, bar team and kitchen team for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon of bowling on yet another hot, sunny day.
Carole had hoped that she'd selected evenly matched teams - rinks 2 and 5 finished on 18-18 and 10-10 respectively.
Rink 4 ended 15-13 and rink 3 16-12...all pretty even so far...until rink 6 saw Sue Walker, Steve Nicholls and Peter Pask take a 19-8 win and rink 1 cleared a 14 shot lead, 19-5 😮
Everyone was very grateful to Graham Smith who kindly donated ice lollies to refresh us half way through the game.
Meanwhile, Cherry Richardson and her team were working hard in extremely hot conditions to produce a delicious meal.
After the meal, Carole made a brief speech thanking everyone present for the work that they do, and presented thank you gifts to everyone who had helped on the day.
Finally, Graham Smith and Bobby Bruce drew the raffle to conclude a fabulous day.
The spider winner was Colin Wall.
The President's charity is Action For Family Carers.
Thank you to Sara-jane Squire for the photos.

Tomorrow, Sunday 9th August, is President's Invitation Day.
Whilst the bowling and post-match meal is by invitation only, spectators are welcome to watch the game which starts at 2.30pm.
Prior to this event, we will be hosting the C&D mixed pairs semi-final at 10am.

CMBL Division 1 round up. Reports from Barry McDonagh.

Tuesday 28th July v Falcon A

A very keenly fought match with both teams hoping to secure maximum points.
As expected, Falcon fielded a strong team, as did Maldon, and predictably it turned out to be a very close game.
Dave Torrice’s rink had a neck and neck battle and went into the last end four shots to the good. But Falcon came in to get three shots to give Maldon a one shot win 22 - 21.
Kevin Cornwell’s rink has a much tougher time and with two ends to go they were seven shots down. So one shot on the penultimate end and then five on the final end to give a final score of 18 - 19. So a final result of 4 match points each.

Tuesday 4th August v Silver End

Maldon travelled to the league leaders, still with an outside chance of winning the league.
Dave Torrice’s rink fought well against strong opponents, and eventually lost by 12 shots to 18.
Kevin Cornwell’s rink were only two shots ahead after fifteen ends, having fought back from nine shots down, but then conceded six shots in two ends, before pulling back two on the last end to give a final score of 19 - 21.
So a 0 - 8 loss but no disgrace.
Both rinks played well, but we’re beaten by a very good Silver End team on what proved to be a very challenging green.