South Park Bowls Club

A game that is and was always going to be comfortable. Woodland at full strength are only an average team, a weakened team was never going to be a match for our strong Sherwood League team especially with Hopkins Jnr being available to strengthen the back end.
3 convincing wins for his rink, Barry Hopkins rink and Sandra Hopkins rink – a full family destruction to get the team through to round 2!

Friday night saw an evening of stormy weather, the game progressed for 5 ends before Cummins Shirley Barras had to be taken off after a slip on the green.
We hear she is on crutches and wish her well on her recevery. Shirley is a lovely woman and despite being totally against calling off games for rain at our club it was felt this decision was only right in the circumstances.

On a lighter note we were getting battered………………

The team despite missing Barry Hopkins and Simon Brodie pulled off a fantastic performance at North Lodge Park. A difficult night was expected especially against Jane, Sam and Stacey who are our players in the Durham & District League.
We were proven wrong, the team went out and did their job to top the table with 7 and a half points in 2 games. The only half point dropped was Colin Gittins rink, but still away from home this was a great result.

A good result this evening as our team demolished Woodland in the Sherwood League opening fixture. All rinks skipped by the Hopkins family won comfortably.
Albeit Woodland are probably the leagues weakest team a clean sheet in the 1st match is alway welcome.
Despite winning the league 2 seasons ago the team found it difficuly last season to match expectations and only just survived relegation. As it happens no one went down as the league amalgamated into one Division only. As always the favourites for the league are Cummins but South Park and the JUC are always a threat and if either find the necessary consistency they can push all the way to the very end.

The Friday night season starts with a home tie to Woodland which will see the return of larger than life Stan Jenkins to South Park.
The league looks more interesting this year with varied opposition, sadly this includes the long trek to Barnard Castle (which we all hate), still its nice to have a new challenge in this league especially when the Darlington & District League looks a little dour this year down in the 3rd Division.
In the Sherwood League Knock-Out we make a return trip to Woodland which at their green isnt an east task however would be disappointed not to progress with our youthful team.