Frome Park Bowls News

The season is now in full flow for the bowlers at Frome Park, matches are being played 3 or 4 times every week, and after a slow start to the season, the results have been improving for all their teams.

The men’s A team have recovered from losing their first County League East 1 match to record two away wins. Firstly away at Imperial, Bristol, where a convincing 29 – 11 win by the rink of Keith McLeod, Richard Phillips, Wayne Pitts and Mike Gulliford helped secure 8 points. This was followed up by an even better win over Knowle “B” where all 3 rinks won, to claim all 12 points with an overall score of 61 – 43. The top rink for the Park was Keith McLeod, Eddie Maidment, Wayne Pitts and Mike Gulliford who ran out easy winners by 23 – 10. The “B” team, having lost their first 2 matches, bounced back for a convincing win on all 3 rinks against Paulton to get their 12 points and hopefully kick their season on from here. The highest winning rink was Chris Bailey-Green, Jim McAlpine, Andy Graham and Terry Drew who played very well as a team to secure the win by 23 – 13.

In the national competitions there has been some good and some bad news. The good news was an away win at Stothert & Pitt in the Top Club by 4 – 1. Wins in the 2 wood singles for Wayne Pitts, the Pairs, Triples and the Fours was a good result and sends the park through to the next round, which is an away trip to Knowle. In the Club Two Fours competition, Frome Park “A” lost at Keynsham “A” but Frome Park “B” won at home against Paulton by 46 – 39. They followed this up with another win in the next round also at home against Weston Bath, this time by a score of 36 – 31. Their reward is another home tie against the winners of Bloomfield “B” verses Bath “C” and they are looking forward to keeping up their winning form.

In the mixed Tony Alcock Trophy, the park played hosts to Prattens and had a disappointing end to a very close match, losing 36 – 39 overall. The rink of Myra Drew, John Curtis, Gloria Buchan and John Pritchard winning by 1 shot but the other rink lost by 4 shots after being all level after 15 ends.

The ladies had a good win in the Wild League at home against Purnells, winning on 2 rinks to claim 10 points. The best winning triple was Olive Maidment, Leslie Elms and Jean Bartlett, who got the better of their opponents towards the end to run out comfortable winners by 20 – 13. The ladies followed this up with another convincing win against Prattens, again winning on all rinks to get the 12 points. The highest winning triple on this occasion was Olive Maidment, Val Smith and Myra Drew who dominated from early on to secure the win by 24 – 13.

The mixed teams have been busy with some very good results in their friendly matches. A win against Prattens by a score of 92 – 65 was helped by the best winning rink for the park of Malcolm Jepson, Jane McLeod, Jim McAlpine and Keith McLeod who were always in control to finish on a score of 25 – 14. They had another good win against Shaftesbury, playing four rinks of triples, the overall score was 79 – 56 which was an excellent result. This was helped by a great win by the triple of Dave Laycock, Jim McAlpine and Val Church, running away with it by 25 – 9. A loss followed away at Yeovil, the home side proving to strong to claim the win by an overall score of 95 – 74. Frome had a winning rink just to stop a total whitewash, this was Dave Laycock, Val Smith, Peter Wheeler and Pete Jennings, winning by 23 – 15. Frome Park got back to winning ways with a good win in the mixed friendly against Broughton Gifford. Winning on 3 of the 4 rinks and overall by 83 – 63. Frome’s best rink was Liz Wells, Janet Pitts, Les Stather and Kim Pitts who had a very convincing win by 32 – 14.

Steve West