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Wednesday evening the 28th March saw the final game of the season for our short mat enthusiasts. The evening, for this occasion, was limited to a shorter number of games in order to celebrate the way the season had gone with a fish and chip supper organised by the team leader and development officer Terry Miles.

After a drink or two and the digesting of the well enjoyed supper David Ryde-Rogers stood up and gave a short speech, thanking Terry for his efforts and congratulating him on the achievement. The short mat support had risen to almost double that at the start of the season and included, for the first time, a number of home and away friendlies.

This was followed by a presentation to Terry by Trevor Fackrell on behalf of the members.

A Devizes Short Mat team (photo below) visited Westbury White Horse short mat cub on the evening of Wednesday 7th March for a friendly match. Taking into account the fact that Westbury are one or the top short mat clubs in the area our team, although finishing up on the losing side, did not disgrace themselves and put up a good fight. The team was divided into three fours who played 6 ends against a four from the opposition then swapped over and played a different four for a further six ends and finally a third four for the final 6 ends making 18 ends in all.

The fours were:

Mat 1: Anne Harris, Will Ilott, Trevor Fackrell and Colin Smith lost 4-6, 2-4 and 4-10.
Mat 2: Jane Ilott, Ken Curtis, Kevin Hannah and John Harris won 7-4 then lost 5-12 and 2-7.
Mat 3: Su, , Dennis Helm, Bernard Fox and Alison Cross lost 2-9, 1-13 and 4-11.

There will be a return match on home ground on Monday 13th March.

Report by Terry Miles.

A New Season Message from our President

A new season is quickly approaching, and it is with honour that I write to you in our One Hundredth and First year as your President. Following last year’s successful Centenary, we are back to a more normal year but again a very busy one. We have an exciting year ahead with our first tour for many years to Weymouth and a full fixture list to keep us busy. As I welcome you all to the new season I ask you again to support the Captains by making yourself available for matches and helping with jobs around the club in any way you can. I look forward to meeting you all in April and wish you all a happy and successful season.

Rosemary.

Sunday 11th February, make a mental note of this date as this was, in the first instance, a day when our catering ladies worked miracles and their leader for brunches, President Rosemary Bradbury, announced her retirement immediately following the next brunch on March 18th, in other words, the end of an era UNLESS somebody else steps up to the plate for next year. Rosemary has indicated she is very willing to pass on all the information needed to her successor should one be found.

As to the miracle the team performed, this is related to the fact that at 10.30am, just when they were about to start the preparation, yet again the gas supply to the cooker failed but the team succeeded in presenting 30 plus delicious and very acceptable full English breakfast brunches whilst cooking on a two plate gas camping stove.

Many congratulations to Rosemary, Wendy, Ellen, Niki, Eleanor and the one and only male Richard in achieving the impossible.

You all deserve a gold medal.

The short mat team travelled to Urchfont for a friendly dual on the evening of Tuesday 30th January. The match consisted of 18 ends split into two sets of 9,

Will Ilott, Nicola Sage, Alan Price and Simon Northway just missed out on their first session losing 8-9 but the second session saw the tables turned and they won 18-17 resulting in a tight match and a draw at 26 all.

Jane Ilott, Ken Roberts, Neil Randall and Colin Smith fared better winning both sessions 11-5 and 15-3 giving an overall win to Devizes with a score of 52-34.

Well done all.
Terry Miles

Wednesday saw a short mat taster session for the Devizes Lions take place at the club where the visitors arrived with 16 players which, when added to the Devizes players, totalled 24 players resulting in all three mats being brought into use.

The evening was described by all as being very excellent and enjoyable or was that the fish and chip supper afterwards that they were talking about?

Most probably both!!

Well done all.

Terry Miles
Development Officer.

Wednesday 17th January saw the next game in the phase of friendly matches being played by the short mat members of our club with another match at home against Seend.
The format for this one was two teams of four players playing ten ends on one mat before changing to the second mat for the second half of the game, another ten ends.

The team of Geoff Woollan, Alison Cross, Dennis Helm and Peter Charters had a magnificent though tight first half winning 9-8 but unfortunately, as can happen, the wheels came of the truck during the second ten ends when they lost 4-15.
Meanwhile Keith Scrannage, Kevin Hannam, Lynn Williams and Jeff Whiting lost narrowly on both phases of the match with scores of 8-10 and 3-9.

As ever with the matches against Seend the night was played in great spirit and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Terry Miles.

Last week saw the arrival of a third mat opening up the opportunity for additional players to join in. As it can be seen from the photographs the associated additional equipment is not yet fully up to specification and will not be until the toilet rolls have run out!

Well done the short mat team a great enhancement to the clubs facilities.

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This year has seen major advances in the development of the winter short mat activities where on a number of occasions over 20 members have turned up for a game which was more than could be accommodated. Ideas on how this can be overcome are on the agenda for the forthcoming bowls committee meeting but in the meantime below is a report from short mat leader Terry Miles.

13th November 2017
Urchfont’s visit to Devizes Bowls Club was a very successful evening. Urchfont brought 16 players, so everybody had a game. After 8 ends we stopped for supper which was very kindly provided by some of our players, then carried on to play another 8 ends. The result was a good one for the club, with a convincing win.
Our return visit is on 30th January 2018. All in all a very enjoyable evening.

27th November 2017
This was Bromham’s first visit to our Club, they brought along 8 players of a high standard which gave our players a better insight into what would be required to play in the leagues. Bromham won easily, hope we can improve on our next return game, which is yet to be arranged.

5th December 2017
This was our second visit to Seend and this time we took along a few new players. It bodes well for the future of short mat within the club when we report that they did us proud by only losing the game by 1 shot. There were 3 mats out, 12 players per side – we lost two and won 1, which was very encouraging. All had a good evening and we look forward to the return game on 17th January 2018.

6th December 2017
Leo’s (Junior Lions) had a return visit to the club to have a taster session to short mat. Unfortunately their numbers were a bit depleted this year with only 8 Leo’s. With the addition of a fish and chip evening all had a good time.

Terry Miles