CHAWTON Park’s week began badly as they lost to Atherley, 40 shots to 35, in the National O60s.
John Kellow’s four recorded a comfortable win at Atherley, but the home rink, led by Graham Robinson, were in indifferent form and went down by 15 shots.
The same fate awaited Charlie Spear when he travelled to Atherley to take on Wayne Stewart in the National Singles. The Chawton player lost 21-16.
However, there were midweek successes for Chawton in the O60s Singles. There were comfortable wins for Gary Johnson over Joe Ralph (21-11) and Terry Cull over Roger Falkingham (21-8), while Dick Holden received a walkover to complete a Chawton hat-trick against Riverside IBC.
Adam White’s men started their National Triples campaign at Banister Park with a tricky match against the reigning county champions led by Mick Slade. It was a close contest for most of the time, but the Chawton trio eased away in the last few ends to win 20-15.
John Blair’s triple were also in a close encounter against Atherley, led by an old Chawton adversary, Mick Barrett. The lead changed frequently, but the Barrett three finally had the edge and ran out 21-19 victors.
Chawton ladies had their first outing of the season in the Riversmeet Hampshire League and the match with Banister Park was a real thriller, going right to the last wood.
At five ends, Chawton led overall by nine shots, but that was as good as it got. Three rinks slipped behind and it was down to Margaret Leppard’s rink of Sue Murray, Jacquie Bowles and Margaret McPherson to save Chawton. The Leppard rink did the business, finishing with a 20-shot advantage to secure a 67-67 drawn result.
Thursday brought the English Indoor BA to Chawton Park to celebrate the club’s 20th anniversary. Players travelled from 20 different counties, including Leicestershire and Cornwall, to take part in this special fixture, resulting in a 10-shot win for the EIBA.
The weekend friendly against Four Marks BC was very much an in-house affair, and was very close. Chawton just held on to win 70-69.
Earlier in the week, Chawton Park junior Reece Graham, aged just 11, made his debut for Hampshire U25s against Sussex U25s at Arun IBC. Reece has been bowling for three years and is the current Chawton Park U18 champion. Sussex run the match narrowly, 72-70.