It might be the close season but Merrow bowlers have been busy playing indoor fixtures against Auriol at King George Field (overall win) and Mole Valley (overall loss but Richard’s rink had a good result), working on the green and making preparations for Christmas.

This year Sarah showed us how to make willow weaving Christmas trees at Helen’s and the results were all fabulous.

Our fourth Christmas cake decorating session at Barbara and David’s shows how far we have come over the years with many of us making our own cakes, marzipanning and icing before the final decorating sessions. Thanks to Barbara’s help we all ended up with cakes to be proud of and enjoyed rock cakes, with an extra special Christmas touch, and mulled wine.

Barbara was worried when she realised the jumble sale would clash with national indoor competitions, which would mean she was down on volunteers, but there was no need to worry as everyone stepped up and did their bit. We had teams sorting and setting up on Friday and then a team of sellers and clearer-uppers on the day, which meant everything was sold or cleared away by 2pm. Thank you to everyone who donated, came to buy or helped in any way – we raised well over £1000 on the day, with extras to come from Sally’s sterling work selling on-line. The money raised will go towards replacing our ancient green-keeping equipment and maintaining the green and surrounds.

This year we had lots to celebrate at our presentation lunch hosted at Sutton Green Golf Club as in addition to the normal awards, Merrow won a Guildford in Bloom Gold and Best in the Themed Class award for our community garden, as well as winning the Knaphill Triples Trophy. We enjoyed a delicious lunch along with some of our friends from Castle Green. After lunch, trophies and medals were distributed to the winners and runners up in the club competitions. We finished with the usual confusion over the raffle ticket colours but the many prizes were eventually claimed by the rightful winners. Thank you to Joan and Allen for the superb organisation and colour coordinated table decorations.

 A very enjoyable day was had by all at Castle Green Bowls Club on Sunday (21st). To accommodate all the members from both teams who wanted to play, we played rinks instead of triples. The weather was perfect while the brass band played music to entertain everyone. Although we lost overall, Barbara’s team, which consisted of Andy, Kathy, and Patrick from Castle Green, kept the difference down with a marvellous win of 29 to Merrow and 10 to Castle Green.

Following the match we enjoyed High Tea in the Castle Green club house – a perfect ending to our 2025 season. Report by Allen.

Many congratulations to Barbara and her team!

Despite a not so good forecast both days of finals were dry and fine if a bit blustery – at one stage the box of biscuits blew off the refreshment tables and cushions had to be tied down.

There were lots of spectators over all sessions on both days and some very close matches between a good number of different finalists. Results can be seen on BIAS and will be on our honours board in due course. There is only one outstanding match – the Novices between Tony M and Robert which will be scheduled for later.

Many thanks to David O for organising and running the competitions, Jo for umpiring both days and to the green team for preparing a very good surface despite the torrential rainfall in the preceding week.

As usual trophies will be presented at our annual awards Lunch on October 19^th. Don’t forget to book your place and lunch choices by 14^th September.

Congratulations to all 13 players who played the season to help Merrow win the Zone 3 Thursday league for the fourth time in a row. Having won the zone (shield) and qualifying for the final stages, Steve M, David E, Richard, Ruth, Barbara and John W (with Robert as reserve) travelled to Knaphill on the 4th September to play the semi finals and finals.

Despite torrential rain in the morning and ever changing playing conditions, Merrow triumphed over Knaphill Black in the semi-final. Mayford Hall provided stiff opposition in the final, but a good fight back allowed Merrow to win the overall competition for the second time in a tightly contested match. Report by John W

On Saturday 30^th twelve of us travelled to Ripley for the annual ‘David Matthews Cup’ match, a four triples friendly.  It was a rainy afternoon with a very exciting finish as the overall scores were all square going into the final end on rink 3. Merrow managed to cling on and held one shot despite the Ripley’s skip best attempts (very close) at removing the shot bowl. Pauline accepted the cup on behalf of Merrow. Ripley will be out for revenge next year!

For a complete change this year we tried crown green bowls on Sunday 31st. David O spray painted jacks to match our newly acquired footer mats. We played two bowl pairs across the green going in any direction, which caused chaos and lots of fun. After five ends the ‘winning’ pair moved up to the next colour.

A rain interruption allowed us to sample all the delicious cakes at an early tea break and we concluded with drinks from the bar and Robin’s sausage rolls and cheese straws.

After four rounds the scores were so close the eventual winners were decided on ends won. Well done to Robert and Andy.

Watch out for the end of season Fish and Chips on the 18^th September (sign up on the noticeboard) and Club Finals this coming weekend (6^th and 7^th September).

For our fourth running of the Club Aussie pairs competition 16 keen players arrived at 9.30am (or thereabouts!) on Saturday morning for the draw. There were two leagues of four teams who played round robin matches of eight ends interspersed with tea/coffee breaks including cakes (thank you Barbara, Helen and Pauline) and lunch. Additional spectators arrived for the exciting close final at 3.15pm between the league winners Joan & Allen and Sally & John.

Sally and John were the eventual winners and received the Raison Trophy.