We were very lucky with the weather as it the forecast had been for heavy thundery showers but as you can see from the pictures we were able to play 18 ends in the dry and enjoy our picnic and raffle after.

Our President David was up early blowing up balloons to advertise his nominated charity, The Royal Surrey Charity, which is celebrating 30 years of supporting the work at the Hospital.

Chair Richard and David E sorted the players into four triples and we played only six ends before an early tea-break as the main club provided an impromptu barbeque to go with our usual spread of cakes. Back to bowling where the Chair’s team continued to pull ahead and win on three of the four rinks. This is the third year in a row the President has lost but we had a great afternoon and match fees, raffle and Octopus (Merrow’s own version of the spider) raised £250 for The Royal Surrey.

True to form summer has arrived with rain showers interrupting play and one club night has been cancelled. It does mean that the green has had a good soak. The league matches have had to be played regardless and our Tuesday Triples squad were thoroughly soaked during their game against Woodbridge Hill.

The ladies have started their West Surrey league with a win – the picture below shows them on rinks one and two with the club Aussie Pairs League on rinks four-six, so the green is being well used on Monday evenings. The ladies also won their latest Surrey Ad match at Ewhurst playing in glorious sunshine.

The Friday Night League and Knaphill Triples teams have had mixed fortunes but are picking up points

Our Friendly matches continue and are providing enjoyable opportunities to bowl against local clubs. In particular our match against Godalming away saw a narrow win by two shots – two rinks were drawn and two held onto one shot leads in an exciting finish played to accompaniment from the Rock School Choir in the bandstand.

Our flower beds and banks are looking splendid with plenty of colour and a new magnificent bughouse designed, made and installed by David O to compliment the butterfly theme.

The Surrey Advertiser League is now underway and Merrow had a very close game against Milford. It was all square going into the final end which Merrow managed to win by one shot. Merrow were entertaining Knaphill in the Knaphill Triples at the same time and also had wins on both rinks.

In the WSBA Friday night league Merrow B had a heavy defeat but Melanie reports it was a very enjoyable game despite the final score.

In the interclub friendlies we struggled against Burpham at home on Saturday 26th May but won away at Knaphill on the 27th.

The season has started with glorious sunshine although it did get a little cold and windy in the second week. We have played several friendlies already against local clubs home and away with mixed results and some external leagues have also started. Results are on BIAS for friendlies and for leagues under fixtures. League tables will start to appear on the website from next week.

Our club Aussie Pairs and club night leagues are now underway. If you would like to join an Aussie Pairs team talk to Tony D and for Club Night League just turn up by 5.45pm on a Thursday.

A match report by Melanie for our additional team in the WSBA Midweek League – what a great start to their first external league game!

A big thank you to Steve J and his team, Phil, Gary and Steve C for their great hospitality at Bookham. It was a close game throughout. The final end was ‘nail biting for us but our skip, Mike B, bowled the perfect final shot for Merrow!  

Open Day
Twenty-seven people came to have a go at bowls in the lovely sunshine. We were especially pleased to be able to help one local boy complete his homework, which was to try a new sport. Everyone got the gist very quickly and quite a few have arranged to come back for coaching or another session.
Report by Debbie

Afternoon Tea and Butterflies
Well done everyone for a brilliant afternoon. We raised a good sum for Royal Surrey Hospital charity and our club funds including £75.10 on guess the weight of the cake won by Clive (within 0.2 kg). There was also additional donations specifically for the Hospital! Well done to all our fantastic volunteers for their dedication to duty. It’s your support that makes the club what it is. 

A special mention and big thank you must go to Helen for all the supply of china, tablecloths and cutlery, plus her invaluable knowledge of catering for a large number of people at an afternoon tea! I couldn’t have even envisaged running such an event without her. 

We also have to thank Sarah for her brilliant creative butterfly workshop which we all thoroughly enjoyed. She made it all look so easy and we managed to make a fantastic swarm of butterflies which I hope you will all get to see soon. This event also raised £30 and for those of you who missed it, watch this space.

Thanks again all of you.

Barbara

The green was formally opened on Easter Sunday afternoon by our President, David F. Those members who didn’t have a family clash enjoyed an hour of bowling to get their hand in and then adjourned for tea and cake with the visitors who had joined us for the beginning of the new outdoor season.

Good luck to all those bowling competitively in leagues and competitions this year.

Mike and Derek have finished the refurbishment on one side of the ditches. It turned out to be a more taxing job than they initially thought with flints and stones needing digging out before the new plastic fence posts could be installed. As Mike told Debbie, “We have 30-year-old brains but bodies a lot older”.

We all agree the new ditch edge is a vast improvement on the wavy and unsafe bank we had before.

A huge thank you to you both.

On Saturday 22nd March the weather forecast was much better than predicted and 15 members turned up to help paint the sheds, ditch-boards and wooden frame and posts as well as start on the weeding and planting up of the flower borders.

Thanks to Mike for organising the work- party, Tony D for the wonderful breakfast and Lesly for making the tea and coffee. Those who missed out this time due to bowling indoors will be able to help when we have our next work party to get the clubhouse sorted and the ditch liners etc. back in place later in April.

Our series of indoor friendlies continues with wins against Camberley IBC and Burpham. Both matches were played in a very good spirit. There is one indoor fixture left with Castle Green, where we will be playing in mixed teams and enjoying a post-match meal.

Still some work to do but the Green was looking good in the sunshine after a winter cut. The bank repair will be underway very soon and we hope to be opening the green on 20^th April.

Christmas Cake Decorating
For the third year in a row Barbara and David invited us to decorate our Christmas cakes together, learning new techniques and sampling cake and coffee. We all know now how to make edible silver paint from gin and silver lustre powder. This year we chose from several designs with robins with stockings, trees in the snow, a present filled sleigh, candy-canes, candles with Christmas roses and a mouse featuring on the cakes. Barbara had bagged up all the correct coloured icing for each design and David raised the tables so we could work in comfort. The more complicated designs were challenging but each of us left with cakes to be proud of. Thank you to Barbara and David for hosting.

Match Reports
A new indoor fixture saw us playing Auriol Outdoor Club at King George Field. Merrow lost (43-51) but all the players enjoyed their game and meal and we hope to repeat the fixture next year.

Ruth captained her first indoor fixture at Mole Valley where we almost stole a win (59-62), winning on three of the four rinks.

There are three more indoor fixtures in the new year so sign up on BIAS if you want to play.