Last season, we made contact with Westfield Bowls Club and invited them to Merrow for a friendly. This culminated in the two clubs agreeing to play home and away matches in 2018.

On Wednesday, 23rd May, Merrow bowlers travelled to Westfield for the first of our two matches, this one starting at 6pm. Merrow had expected to be playing four rinks of triples, but somewhere along the way Westfield had got the feeling that we were only going to be playing three rinks and had organised a Ladies final on one of their four rinks. As a result, six Merrow players agreed to play for half of the match, which wasn’t a great outcome for them, with one team’s players being spread out across the other three teams.

Eventually the match got under way. The weather looked threatening, but within a few minutes the skies cleared and we had a fine evening for bowls. It was nip and tuck for most of the match, but eventually Westfield came out on top, winning on all three rinks. Fortunately, the captain’s rink was our best performing, saving some embarrassment, losing by just two points, so well done Ken B, Richard D (first half), Debbie E (second half), and David R.

A very welcome tea was provided after the match by Ken, who was also manning the bar.

Although we lost this match, the score was a vast improvement over our last meeting, so there’s a lot for us to celebrate. Here are some photos taken by Ben Hosking to give a flavour of the evening.