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On Sunday 25th June, Henley held its annual Gala Day on what was probably the hottest day of the year so far. Fortunately, there was a bit of breeze to ease the heat although a sun shade or two took a tumble onto the neighbouring Adventure Golf Park.
Teams from Caversham, Desborough, Harwell, Maiden Erlegh, Maidenhead Thicket, Maidenhead Town, Pangbourne, Sutton and Wargrave entered the competition and Henley entered 2 of its own teams. The 12 teams competed in a Mixed Triples round robin competition played in two pools. Each team in a pool played five games of 6 ends each and pool winners went through to the final. As usual, the Club is indebted to our sponsor A.B Walker for providing the prize money, raffle prizes and gazebo.
The day kicked off just before 10:00am with the usual "spider" competition. This is where all participants stand on the green but with one foot in the ditch and on the sound of the whistle, everyone delivers one bowl to the jack in the centre of the green. It's always a bit of a lottery and this year, the closest bowl to the jack was delivered by one of the Henley bowlers, Peter Falle who won a bottle of champagne.
The proper event then kicked off with 3 games in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. It was a closely fought competition throughout the day and going into the final game of the round robin, the blue pool had one of the Desborough teams (Dazed & Confused) tied with Caversham (Seafarers).
In the red pool, it was a three-way tie between Pangbourne, one of the Henley teams (the Young Ones) and the Sutton team (G & T).
However, the fifth game proved the decider and both pools delivered a clear winner as shown in the tables below.
After a break in proceedings. when all teams enjoyed tea, cakes, scones and other refreshments, the raffle was drawn by the Club Chairperson Sally Daniells. At 5pm, the two teams faced off in the 6-end final with Dazed & Confused from Desborough beating Pangbourne decisively 13-6 although Pangbourne won 4 of the 6 ends. Her Worship the Mayor, Sarah Miller, patron to the Henley-on-Thames Bowling Club, was kind enough to present the Gala Day shield and individual medals to the winners and runners-up.
The winners:
Dazed & Confused
Skip Nicola Jones with Bob Forster, the Mayor and lead Russell Dale .
The runners-up:
Pangbourne
Skip Daphne Walker with lead Lyn Smith, Tim Elvin and the Mayor.