On Wednesday 6th July, Mayford Hall visited us to play the return match. The match at Mayford had been rained off at the interval, so a warm and sunny afternoon was a real treat. It was a pleasure to renew acquaintances with those we had met earlier in the year and we looked forward to an enjoyable afternoon.

Merrow had several new bowlers playing in the match; David, Mo and Ken, all of whom acquitted themselves well and we look forward to their continuing involvement over the rest of the season.

We had four triples rinks in play and a hard-fought match ensued, with a mixture of results. However, Mayford ran out winners with a total of 75 points to Merrow’s 52.

On Saturday, 2nd July, a windy day with some sharp showers, we visited the new Ripley Bowls Club. The new green is right next to the A3 but the traffic noise was soon forgotten as we got into the match.

We were playing triples over four rinks. With such a strong wind, the bowls didn’t always go where one expected, and a rain shower prompted the interval tea break. However, the sun did come out and the latter half of the match was played in lovely conditions. Merrow won on three of the four rinks and had a good 34 point win overall.

The Ripley team team very welcoming and it was a pleasure to visit them. We look forward to the return match at Merrow on 23rd July.

Saturday 25th June saw Merrow travel to Ottershaw for a friendly triples match.

The afternoon didn’t start well. On leaving Merrow, the heavens opened and much of the journey was through a torrential downpour. Fortunately, on arrival at Ottershaw, the sun had come out and a pleasant afternoon was in prospect.

Play was over four rinks on a green initially slowed by the rain but otherwise giving a good run for the bowls. Three of the rinks finished in Merrow’s favour, with a good overall win for us as three of the four rinks won.

A most enjoyable afternoon for all concerned.

Wednesday saw our first matches in the Harding Cup, a competition for mixed triples. The competition is between five Surrey villages; Wednesday saw two matches played between Merrow and Albury, one home and one away.

Both home and away matches resulted in losses for the Merrow teams. The home side lost by six shots, while the away team were comprehensively beaten by Albury. Leaving the scores aside, it was a very enjoyable evening, with matches played in glorious conditions and match experience gained by the newer bowlers.

We look forward to the forthcoming matches.

We have a new banner to build on the success of our Open Day. Hopefully, the continuing reminder will encourage more people to come along and try bowls at our club. The banner says it all really!

Following our triples league win on Tuesday at Godalming (as reported previously), a win which puts us top of this league, our game at Mayford Hall on Wednesday was abandoned halfway through because of heavy rain. The Friday night team of 1 rink then had another creditable win at home to a good Camberley “B” side. Saturday again saw us having to play in wet conditions in the home friendly against Pippbrook, but we persevered to just pip them (sorry) on all rinks.

Sunday saw better conditions and three triples went to Wonersh for a friendly game, played in a very enjoyable atmosphere on a lush if slowish green.  About 10 shots down at the tea interval the team rallied to their Captain’s plea for a better second half and the resulting improvement saw them record their first win on a Sunday this season by 49 shots to 41.  All credit to Bob Carey who is having a good season and led his rink to an excellent 12 shot win to help carry the team through.

This week sees the start of the Surrey County Competitions, and the club wish good luck to all of their members involved.

Our third match in the Tuesday Triples League saw us away to Godalming on a bit of a tricky and heavyish green, and we were soon up against it with one of the two triples dropping ten shots on the first two ends, and finding themselves 12 down a little later. However recording a 6 on this rink just before the tea interval gave an indication that we were not going down without a fight, and with our second rink pulling themselves into a small lead the team dug deep and rallied round to record a narrow but creditable win by just 4 shots.  All credit to David Matthews and David Foster who both saw the match through whilst not feeling entirely well.

Our busy season continues today with a friendly away at Mayford Hall (weather permitting)  followed by a home game against Camberley Friday night (1 rink) and weekend friendlies with Dorking and Wonersh.

Our team in the Tuesday Triples league (AKA Old Codgers League –2 triples -men only–over 55 years old)  having started with a narrow defeat at Astolat on 3rd May, played their first home game on 10th and recorded an excellent win over Castle Green 58 -16.  A single rink then went to Knaphill on Friday 13th (lucky for us as it turned out)  to play their B side in the Friday night league, and achieved a win by 7 shots, an excellent away result against a good home side. At the weekend a team of 12 continued the success with a 20 shot win in our Saturday friendly game at Shere, but we came down to earth with a bump the following day, getting thoroughly thumped 39-88 by an excellent home team at Milford.

The emphasis of the club is on these weekend friendly games where enjoyment of the game takes priority over the result, and we look forward to bringing more new members into the team in the next few weeks, to give them useful match experience and allow them to mix with existing members and opponents in the jovial and enjoyable atmosphere that prevails.

After a successful open day, with 13 people from the Merrow area coming along to try the game, our coach is busy following these up with additional lessons on a one to one basis. This has resulted in two of them joining the club already, one of whom having made such good progress will go straight into the team this weekend.  Lessons continue with the others and we are hopeful that at least some of these will join us.

We couldn’t have wished for better weather on our Open Day on Sunday, with record temperatures of 26C recorded in Guildford. Beautiful day to show off both the green and the game.

A good number of interested people came along to try their hand at bowls and to find out how it is played and about the club. We had an encouraging number of conversions into new members, which repaid all the effort put in by the club.

If you weren’t able to get along on the day, you can always come to one of our informal club nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There are normally members around from about 5:30pm.

Here are a few photos from the afternoon session.

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