Club Finals 2026
On Saturday 5th September and Sunday 6th 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.
4 Wood Pairs
The first game on the Saturday morning was the 4 Wood Pairs.
This is played over 18 ends and was between pair Jo Wilson and Chris Swann and Kevin Browne with Dougie Duguid. Skip Kevin with lead Dougie got off to a flying start and were 6-1 up after 3 ends but by the eighth end were pegged back to 7-8 by skip Jo and lead Chris. It was a tight game from there on in and still level at 13-13 by the fourteenth end. However, with Kevin and Dougie scoring 1s over the next three ends, Jo and Chris couldn't pull it back and Kevin and Dougie won 16-14.
4 Wood Singles
In the afternoon, Kevin Browne faced Pete Falle in the 4 Wood Singles competition and built on the form he had shown in the morning pairs match. Last year's winner in this competition Pete, just couldn't get into his game at all and Kevin won 21-4 to take his second win of the day.
Men's Championship
Meanwhile, on rink 4, Hylton Jenkins played Steve Sullivan in the Men's Championship.
With a 4 on the first end followed by high scoring over the next seven ends, Hylton was 18-2 up before Steve could find any rhythm. Hylton continued to dominate the game and ran out the winner at 22-3.
Ladies Championship
The Ladies' Championship on rink 3 was competed for between last year's winner Jo Wilson and last year's Ladies Novice winner Karen Wakeling. Both players showed some nerves and at 1-1 by the second end, 5-5 by the fifth and 8-7 to Karen by the eighth, there was little to choose between them.
Over the next three ends, Karen scored a 1, 2, and a 3 to take a 14-7 lead but whether it was nerves from Karen or greater experience from Jo, Karen only won one more end of the eight played and Jo ran out the winner, 21-15.
Champion of Champions
After a pause, Jo then played her third game of the day against Hylton Jenkins for the Champion of Champions trophy. This is a 4 Wood Singles match played over 12 ends. Hylton was still in scintillating form and was 10-2 up by the half-way stage. Although Jo scored a few more shots, Hylton ran out the winner at 18-7 to bring the first day's play to a fine conclusion.
Here we see Hylton receiving more congratulations than he bargained for.
On Sunday 6th September, two finals were played, the 91-Up competition and the Married Pairs or Partners.
91 Up
91-Up is a 4 Wood Singles game where the four closest bowls to the jack score 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively, definitely a drawing game with a possible maximum score of 10 on an end. Kevin Browne faced last year's 91 Up winner Simon Hatcher.
Kevin took an early lead over the first four ends but there was little to choose between the two players and by the eighth end it was all square at 40-40. Simon then started to eke out a small lead over the next four ends to get 64-56 in front but Kevin then started to find some of his Saturday form. With scores of 8-2, 7-3, 8-2, 6-4 and 6-4 over the next five ends, Kevin took the win 91-79 for his third success of the weekend.
Married Pairs or Partners
The final match of the day was the Married Pairs or Partners competed for between Melinda and Chris Swann and Susie and Dougie Duguid. A 4 Woods Pairs game, the lead swung to and fro. The Duguids took a 7-1 lead by the fourth end but were pulled back to 8-8 by the ninth. The Swanns then took charge and were 15-10 up by the twelfth end before the Duguids levelled the score at 15-15 by the fifteenth. It was a nail-biting last three ends but the Swanns managed to score 1 shot on each of them to win 18-15 and bring the weekend to an end.
3 Wood Singles
However, the finals weren't quite at an end. The 3 Wood Singles, delayed until Monday 7th because of annual leave commitments, was played between two new members, Paul Scrivens and Steve Cooper. Steve had recently been crowned Men's Novice's champion so was probably considered the favourite but the game was more even than that. Steve found the run of the green first and took a 5-2 lead by the fourth end. Paul picked up his game to level the score 6-6 by the ninth. Then it was 8-8 by the twelfth, 13-13 by the nineteenth and 16-16 by the twenty-third end. Paul then scored 2s on the next two ends to lead 20-16 and, despite Steve scoring 1 more shot, Paul took the win 21-17.