President’s Day kicked off with a large number of entries taking part in the competition’s first round, on what began as a wet and windy Sunday morning. This year’s club President, Geoff Blamire, was amongst the field of entries, and soon progressed to the second round. By lunchtime, the sun began to peek through, and, combined with the extensive Jacob’s Join spread brought in my club members, this boosted morale tremendously!
Members sat outside and watched as the rounds of bowls slowly whittled the field down to the last 4 in both the main competition and the consolation competition, just in time for the break for the President’s meal across at the Village Hall. A buffet was enjoyed by members and their guests, and to close the meal, Chairman Peter Carr thanked everyone for their contribution to the club and invited Geoff Blamire to deliver a speech.
Geoff spoke of his early bowling days, thanked all the club volunteers for creating such a wonderful green and the displays surrounding it. He also told jokes and finished with a lovely poem entitled, ‘Smiling is Infectious’, which is printed below and will hopefully make you smile again.
Smiling Is Infectious
Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu.
When someone smiled at me today
I started smiling, too.
I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled, I realized,
I’d passed it on to him.
I thought about my smile and then
I realized its worth.
A single smile like mine could travel
right around the earth.
If you feel a smile begin
don’t leave it undetected.
Let’s start an epidemic quick
and get the world infected.
Back on the green, the semi-finals of both halves of the competition got underway, with Keith Roughley and Anne Brogden being victorious in their consolation matches against Carole Ingham and David Bamber respectively. In the main competition, Gail Cafferkey and Peter Carr dispatched their opponents, Graham Moon and Dave Winders, to put themselves through to the final.
With the 2 finals on the green simultaneously in the bright evening sunshine, members watched on as Keith Roughley took victory over Anne Brogden in the consolation round.
This left Peter and Gail doing battle in a very close and tense final game.
At 20-across, the pair shook hands for the last end. Gail had the advantage, having won the last point landing on one of her favourite marks. Gail sent 2 bowls, both within 18 inches of the jack, and Peter couldn’t quite get to the right spot to take the game from her grasp, giving Gail the 21-20 victory.
As we didn’t have a President’s Day competition last year due to Geoff Blaire being unwell, Gail retains the cup, after also winning the competition 2 years ago. Can she win it for a 3rd time running? We’ll see next year!
A fantastic day was enjoyed by all, with many taking home raffle prizes too. Echoing Peter Carr’s speech at the Village Hall, thanks to everyone for your contributions of food and raffle prizes, to volunteers both on the day and all year round, and for being a super friendly, sporting bunch of people. And last but not least, thanks to Geoff Blamire for providing vouchers for a meal at the Rufford Arms for the winners, who are pictured below receiving their prizes and trophy.
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