Club Finals 2025

Henley Bowling Club
Sep 8
3 min read

On Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September, Henley held the finals of its season-long Knockout Competitions. Apart from the Ladies' and the Men's Championships, all the Knockout Competitions are mixed gender and handicapped. Play started on Saturday morning at 10:30am with the Married Pairs or Partners, the 4 Wood Pairs and the 3 Wood Singles. The Married Pairs or Partners final was played between Sally & Norman Daniells and Trudie & Ian Gibson.

This was the seventh time Sally & Norman had competed in this competition and having won it 3 times in the past, were hot favorites. However, this year's Men's Novice winner, Ian Gibson, hoped to overturn the form books. Alas, despite the 3 shot handicap difference, Trudie & Ian couldn't match the accuracy of the Sally & Norman who won decisively.

On the next rink, Jo Wilson & Kevin Currill played David Palmer & Dave Wilson in the 4 Wood Pairs. This looked, on paper, to be an evenly contested game and had added spice because husband and wife were on opposite teams and Kevin & Dave were lead and skip of this season's Oxfordshire County Men's Triples. The score was close at 9-6 to David & Dave by the halfway stage. However, the second half of the game was a different matter with Jo & Kevin only managing to win two ends so David & Dave ran out comfortable winners at 19-9.

The third match of the morning was the 3 Wood Singles being played between Simon Hatcher and newly crowned Ladies' Novices Champion, Karen Wakeling. Simon, last year's winner, was quickly into his line and length and by placing the mat at different distances from the ditch kept Karen struggling to find the form that won her the Novices. Simon's took the win with some ease but was full of praise for Karen's efforts.

There was only one final played in the afternoon and this was the 91-Up which is when the four closest bowls to the jack score, 4, 3, 2 & 1 respectively. Some clubs might know this as 100-Up. This was Simon Hatcher's second final of the day and was played against Hylton Jenkins, last season's Novices winner. With Hylton having the higher handicap because of a strong performance in competitions last year, he had to score 93 to Simon's 91. Hylton took an early lead and by the ninth end was 54-36 up. Simon seemed to have lost the form he showed in his morning game and at this point he clearly gave himself a good talking to. This obviously worked because the next five ends saw him score 7, 8, 8, 8, and a 7 to put him in the lead at 74-66. Not to be put off, Hylton rallied and by the eighteenth end had 91 and Simon had 89. With both players requiring 2 shots to win, they knew that the person holding shot bowl (scoring 4) would take the title. Although both scored 5 points, it was Simon who had shot bowl and Simon came through to win his second match of the finals.

The games on Sunday started at 2pm and were the prestigious Championships for the Ladies and Men. With a good crowd of spectators Jo Wilson and Angelika Crisa competed for the Ladies' title and it was Jo who took an early lead. She was 8-6 up by the ninth end but Angelika stayed in touch and, with a 4 on the fifteenth end, kept the score close at 15-12. However, this obviously motivated Jo who only dropped one more shot to win convincingly 21-13.

The Men's Championship between Pete Falle and Simon Hatcher (in his third final of the weekend) saw Simon taking a 5-4 lead by the sixth end. After that, as he had done on the Saturday, Simon frequently placed the mat at varying distances from the ditch so the constant length changes threw Pete off his game. By the twelfth end, Simon was 19-4 up and only 2 away from winning when Pete finally found line and length and won the next seven ends to close the score to 19-14. However, it was too much of an ask and Simon scored on the next two ends to win 22-14.

After a short break, Jo and Simon played the Champion of Champions final which was played with 2 woods each over 12 ends. After eight ends, Simon was 6-5 up but then scored 2 on the next two ends to finish off a fine weekend by becoming the Club's new Champion of Champions.