Westlands Waterloo Trip 2010
Terry's team retain Waterloo Trophy
Our 15^th consecutive annual competition at the Waterloo Hotel was on Wednesday 29^th September.
The weather forecast was far from encouraging and on our arrival the green was  saturated with steady rain still falling. Everyone ignored the conditions and got on with their games. During the morning, relatively light rain showers persisted but at about 1pm the rain relented and conditions quickly improved to give us a fine afternoon.
 As usual, the Waterloo green was in immaculate condition and soon dried out.

At the start of the competition, the green did no favours to the more skilful players. Terry's Team took full advantage of these conditions (and the absence of Nita) to quickly forge ahead. Throughout the event, they were hotly pursued by Tony's Touchers but just managed to keep their noses in front. They eventually finished on a fairly creditable 119 points (just 92 ahead of  The Touchers). This was their 4th success in the Waterloo Trophy and some of their team surely merit promotion to a more accomplished squad.
Steve's Strugs and Barney's Bunch both put in embarrassing performances and were respectively 157 and 196 points adrift. 

Dare anyone click here for larger image?

Westlands Men's Doubles
Held on Sunday 26^th September 2010

12 members attended the annual Men's Doubles Event. This year it was decided to run the competition as a "round-robin" with all 6 pairs playing each other and the points totalled at the end.
The winning pair were Ian Atherton and Ian Farrimond with a total of 56 points.
Both Ians were winning the Men's Doubles for the third time.
The runners-up were Harold Goodwin and Steve Howe with 43 points.
Thanks to Ian Atherton for this information and to everyone who supported this event.

Westlands Mixed Doubles
Held on Sunday 19^th September 2010

32 members from Westlands Ladies B.C. and Westlands B.C. took part in the Mixed Pairs Competition.
The competition was strong with many pairs playing some good bowls on a fine dry afternoon.
In the end, quality came through with Tessa Gallagher and Alf Smith winning top honours, just behind in second place were Allison Jackson and Steve Brain.
It was the first time that either Tessa or Alf had won this event.
It was a very successful day with the two clubs coming together to enjoy fun, friends and bowls.
See Photo
Many thanks to Ian Atherton and Allison Jackson for organising the event and for providing this report.
Thanks also to Joan and Val for all their help.

Social Bowling Day - Sunday 5^th September

A total of 31 members took part in our final Social Day of 2010.
The bowling programme was a combination of doubles and triples games.
It was not as sunny as on our previous Social Days but at least we were fortunate to have a dry day.
There were 7 Sessions of matches and at the end of Session 4, Rushworth's Rabbits and Stevie's Slingers shared the lead. In Session 5, the Rabbits went 6 points clear and eventually ran out winners by 12 points.
The shock of the series has been the rather disappointing form of Smith's Superstars. In this final competition they could only manage 6th spot and it seems inevitable that "heads will roll".
Members of the winning team (See Photo) were: -
 Mike Rushworth, Lynne Clowes, Pauline Dale, Tom Emery and Jean House.
Many thanks to everyone who supported this event.
Special thanks to Jean and Angela for providing tea/coffee on our 3 Social Days.

Social Bowling Day - Sunday 25^th July

For our 2nd Social Day we again adopted the Team Triples format.
We were very fortunate to have excellent weather and 36 members took part.
Each of our 6 teams played 4 matches, a Match consisting of 2 games of triples.
At the start of the final round only 3 points separated the leading 2 teams.
In the final matches "Bill's Bombers" consolidated their position and ran out winners by 6 points; their winning total was 26 points.
Members of the winning team (See Photo) were: -
 Bill Oldham, Sylvia Benson, Chris Brain, Tom Emery, Harold Goodwin and Angela Smith,
Many thanks to all who supported this event.

Social Bowling Day - Sunday 23^rd May

The day was primarily for social bowling but to add interest a Team Triples Competition was organised.
A total of 36 bowlers took part and it was good to see a number of new members participating.
The format was to have 6 teams (each of 6 players) who played triples games against each other.
It proved to be a very close contest and 3 teams finished within 5 points of each other.
The eventual winners, on 11 points, were captained by Ian Atherton.
Ian's team included Steve Brain, Hilary Dale, Joan Davies, Rob Newton and Margaret Oxer.
See photo of successful team (less Rob who had to dash off just before the end).
Many thanks to everyone for their support of this event.

Alan Bailey into Final Day of Waterloo Spring Open

On 22^nd April, Alan won his 3 qualifying games to reach the last 64 of the competition.
In his second game Alan beat Alan Hodson, Preston, 21 - 13 and then beat Dave Wilson, Cumbria, 21 -19
Finals Day is on on Sunday 30^th May starting at 10am.
Well done Alan and good luck on Finals Day.

In the round of the last 64 Alan lost 21 - 17 to Andy Cairns

Ian Farrimond tops Saturday Parks Division 1 Averages

Congratulations to Ian Farrimond on topping the Saturday Parks Division 1 Averages

Steve Howe reaches Semi-Finals of Birches Head Gardeners Open

The competition, held on Saturday 3rd October, attracted a strong field of local bowlers.
On his way to the semi-final Steve Howe accounted for: -

In the semi-final Steve lost 21 - 13 to Barry Booth.
Barry subsequently beat Lee Brown in the final and collected the £300 prize.
For reaching the semi-final, Steve won £50

Westlands Mens Doubles
Held on Monday 28^th September 2009

16 Members took part in the 2009 Mens' Doubles Competition.
Results of the Semi-Finals and Final are shown below:-

Score

Score

Congratulations to Tom and Ian on their success.
Steve Brain, who organised the competition, wished to thank Mo Clarke for providing tea during the afternoon and members who helped with card marking etc.

Westlands Waterloo Trip 2009
Terry's Team win Waterloo Trophy
The 2009 competition at the Waterloo Hotel was on Thursday 24th September. This was our 14th visit, the weather was fairly cool with a very short spell of morning drizzle. The green was in very good condition.

The Competition was won by the totally unfancied Terry's Team. This was their 3rd success in the event, a record only bettered by The Touchers.

At the start of the final session Stevie's Strugs held a 9 point lead from Terry's Team with Mike's Mob a further 7 points adrift. The Strugs lost both their final games by 3 points. Nita, Freda and Howard had a 6 point win which gave Terry's Team the trophy by 3 points. Mike's Mob finished 16 points behind the winners (a most commendable performance considering their limited ability).

Last year's winners Barney's Bunch were in 4th spot whilst Tony's Touchers were just outside the top 4.

Click on photos for larger image, sorry about quality (and content of 1).

Ian Atherton reaches Semi-Finals of Parks Merits
Sunday 14^th June 2009 - Finals of Parks Singles Merits

Sixteen bowlers qualified for the Finals of the 2009 Staffs Parks Merits which were held at Oakhill Bowling Club.
The field included 3 Westlands players, Ian Atherton, Ian Farrimond and Alan Bailey.
Ian Farrimond lost to Nicky Tideswell in the first round.
Ian Atherton and Alan met in the first round with Ian coming out on top.
In the Quarter-Final, Ian made a great comeback, from 16 - 4 down, to defeat Darren Smallman.
In the Semi-Final, Ian lost to a top form Ant Lloyd.
The Final was won by Kerry Morris.

Well done "Mr Chairman" on reaching the Semi-Final stage of this competition for the second consecutive year.

Norman Thompson receives Sports Award
Tuesday 2^nd June 2009 - Norman Thompson receives Stoke-on-Trent Sports Award

Club Member, Norman Thompson has been awarded the Sentinel 2009 "Services to Sport" award.
This award is in recognition of Norman's dedicated service to athletics over a period of more than 60 years.
Norman first started competing in 1947 as a member of North Staffs Harriers.
He started his coaching career in 1964 and was a founder member of Newcastle Athletics Club which he served for 20 years as a committee member.
Norman was involved with the Staffordshire AAA team for more than 20 years and was President for 2 years.

Congratulations to Norman on receiving this prestigious award.

Alan Bailey was among the 16 bowlers who qualified for the 2009 Potteries Merits Finals; held at Meir Sports & Social Club.
On his way to the Semi-Final, Alan had wins over Nicky Tideswell and Keith Williamson. In his semi-final Alan lost 21 - 15 to Mark Melvin.
The final was won by Joe Melvin who beat brother Mark 21 - 19.

By reaching the last 4, Alan qualified for the All British Individual Merit Finals which will be held in Crosby on Saturday 25^th July.

Congratulations, Alan on this success.

At the 2009 Club  AGM, Alf Smith was made Life Member of the Club. When proposing Alf for this award, Ian Atherton, Chairman, referred to the tremendous amount of practical work he had done for the Club over many years.
Whenever anything needed attention Alf was always there to promptly sort things out for us.

From Club records, Alf would appear to be the 11th person to be made a Life Member since 1955 (no earlier records available).