Gloucestershire Cup Semi Final 07/09/25
Glos County Cup Semi Final v Cheltenham lost 50 55 😢
The following report was written by Kevin French:
Our third disappointing result in as many weeks, but losing to arguably Gloucestershire’s strongest club/team is no disgrace and this time our disappointment was lessened as at least we made them fight for the win. We were in front with 5 or 6 ends to go but just couldn’t get over the line 😞
Rinks: Jim, Will, Trev, Andy 13 15
Josh, Roger, Keith, Kev 16 15
Larry, Mike, Calvin, Gerry 21 25
A big thank you to Pete Jones who turned up as reserve 👏
As we come to the end of the season, a few thoughts/conclusions/general ramblings:
When I stepped down as Captain last year, I was looking forward to writing these reports, as I no longer had to cajole, coerce, compliment, console, and listen to various problems, to keep our team members onside….
I was therefore going to report brutally on bad shots, bad decisions, bad results – the guilty would be named and shamed, warts and all!
I’m pleased and proud to announce let alone a wart there was barely a blemish and it has been a pleasure writing winning report after winning report.
It’s a short season and often interest is over by early August, but my view is that if you’re in the “shake up” of semi’s and finals come the end at least you feel part of something,
I’m sure those clubs who went out in the first round would have swapped with us to end the season contesting those semi’s and finals. 🏆
In sport, as in life I guess, you can’t have highs, without lows, but I would suggest we have had many games where we’ve come away on a high, feeling good about ourselves and the team.
In the depths of winter I will think back and contemplate the excellent season we have had and great times we had and look forward to next year with confidence and optimism.
Oh I nearly forgot – we did actually win the City & County and NE leagues!
Thanks again to Calvin, Will and Pete for steering us through the season – being a league Captain is, as I know, sometimes a thankless task and never easy 👍
And thanks to everybody who played their part -playing supporting and helping (the whole club really).
We’ve got a great bunch of people – and that’s what makes it a great club! 🥳
P.s it’s not quite over yet with lots of our club members playing in Gloucestershire Finals today and both the North East and City and County finals next weekend (details to follow).
Good luck to all of them 🤞
Match Report: Lloyd Trophy Final Saturday 31/08/24
Final v Bristol st Andrews lost 42 49 😢
Firstly congratulations to St Andrew’s for winning back to back Lloyd finals-an excellent achievement 👏
I think we were all very (very) disappointed to lose this game, with a Division 1 club playing a team from division 2, but St Andrew’s are a very useful team, capable of beating anyone and this proved to be the case on the day.
In reality we lost this game from early on with two rinks getting behind and never being able to claw back the deficit, basically the opposition bowled better than us and won the game…..
Rinks:
Larry with Mike, Jake and Calvin 18-11
Jim with Will, Trev and Andy 9-22
Josh with Mark, Roger and Kev 15-16
Thanks also to those who came along to support us 👍
One ” last throw of the dice” to win a trophy this year playing in the County Cup semi final against Cheltenham, Saturday 7th at Wotton u edge, 9.30 start, with the final in the afternoon.
We need to be right on our game to win this one, but in bowls, as we know, anything can happen!
Clarence Davey Final 25/08/24
Olveston @ Bristol BC: Lost 55 94 ( conceded at 18 ends). 🙁
You can’t win ’em all !
After the successes of the season and excitement of our boys playing at Leamington last week it was down to earth with a bump and our quest to one day win the Clarence Davey continues….(next year perhaps?). 🤞
Getting beaten by Olveston, without much argument I would suggest, the strongest club in the Bristol area, is not a disgrace.
We started very slowly, going behind on all rinks, got back into the game slightly, but then couldn’t just get on song and eventually Olveston’ s strength started to prevail
Good try everybody, this was not to be
For the records, the rinks were:
Jim with Will,Trev and Andy
Roger with Mike, Jake and Jon
Larry with, Calvin, Dave S and Vince
Josh with Keith, Nigel and Kev
The fact is that we still have plenty to play for, next major game Lloyd Trophy v Bristol St Andrew’s : Saturday 31st at Henleaze, 10.00am start.
P.S We wish all the best to the Olveston players involved in various competitions at Leamington this coming week.
Match Report: NE League Division 2 22/08/24
Redland v GBB C: 48-36; 10-0
Final (and much less wet) match of the season, and we rounded it off with an eventual convincing win, though only on the last end on one rink!
Without going into the details of each rink this week, I just want to thank everyone who has played for the NE Team this season for their support and encouragement.
Thanks also to Calvin and Kev for their guidance, and to all those kind people who have served us food and drinks at the end of the evenings.
Looking forward to our joint celebratory evening next Thursday, and another successful season next year!
Match Report: League Division 1 15/08/24
B&D League Home v Willmott Park: Won 36 20 (10 ends) 8 points
The following report was written by Kevin French:
Firstly, without stealing Petes Jones’s thunder massive congratulations to the North East team who sealed their promotion to division one as champions. 👏🏆
Onto the B&D, our second win of the week over Willmott Park, which confirms our excellent performance in the league this year. 👍
With at least 2 more wins than our nearest opponents, it seems that we made it look easy……
Editor’s Note: Which of course it wasn’t!
Our last game proved to be a bit of a damp squibb, damp being the word, in fact very damp and very wet more like. ☔️
The game had an air of “going through the motions “, but we played it out and recorded another win.
On Jim’s rink with Will, Trev and Charlie (Charlie making his league debut, replacing Andy, who typically chose the right night to be rested) it was not the most pleasant of games to be your first but we hope to see more of Charlie in the future; score 9 10
Josh’s rink with Mark, Larry and Kev 13 3
RKJ’s rink with Mike, Jake and Calvin 14 7
On behalf of Calvin, Will and Pete I would like to thank everybody who’s played in both teams this year, there has been a real “buzz” about the club with everyone looking out for everyone else and being supportive when, as in all sports, things aren’t always going your way. Well played all 👏
And behalf of all the players I would thank Calvin,Will and Pete for all their hard work, efficient running of both teams and at times inspired selections 🏆
As a club we can take a little breather until next Sunday’s Clarence Davey game and can focus on the many players we still have in the City and County and North East competitions.
Perhaps the most significant upcoming competition being our triples team of Josh, Mark and Calvin (sub RKJ) in the National Finals at Leamington, next Thursday 22nd August. This is the fifth time in 5 years we have had a representation at the National Finals by a Redland team – surely quite an achievement?
We all, wish them the very best and good luck 🤞
Editor’s Note: I guess with all of these thank yous going around we should thank Kevin and Pete Jones for their match reports every week. These I think bring the whole club together in terms of the league battles and hopefully also sometimes bring a smile on a Friday morning 😃
Finally please remember the end of year club/teams celebration and photo to be held on Thursday 29th August at the Club – for full details please contact Calvin.
Match Report: NE Division 2
Greenbank v Redland: 20-36; 10 points to Redland after 10 ends.
The following report was written by Pete Jones:
Although we had achieved promotion last week, there was still top spot to play for and 8 points here would be sufficient. As it was, the 10-0 win meant that we did not have to worry at all about what was happening at Page Park!
On Nigel’s rink, with Dave H, Alan and Wendy, we looked in control from the start and, despite a temporary setback on the 3rd, we won convincingly, 16-8.
On Ian’s rink, with Phil, Dave S and Pete, there was a similar situation and a 5 on the 5th consolidated our position. The final score was 11-9 and would have been more convincing had it not been for some excellent bowling from Geenbank’s no. 3.
On Mike R’s rink, with Mike W, Mark D and Vince, again we did not concede a point until the 6th end and eventually won 9-3.
I would like to reiterate my message of last night, thanking everyone who has played for the NE team this season and so contributed to our success. Let’s aim to finish off in style at home to GBB next Thursday, hopefully on a drier evening!
🥳🥳🥳🏆
Match Report: Lloyd Trophy 13/08/24
Played at Page Park v Willmott Park: Won 46 42
Another day – another semi final won! We carry on our season’s winning ways, reaching the Lloyd Trophy final for the first time since 1990 – and yes some of us can remember it!
This was a very tight game, as you would expect against third placed in the league. At 10 ends we were 8 up ,at 15 ends only one up, but we now seem to be “closing out games” really well and winning 4 out of the last 6 ends, this sealed the result. 👏
Now I’ve been going on about (Editor’s Note: interminably?) if you have a losing rink, keeping the deficit down can help win the game, but on Josh’s rink with Mark, RKJ and Kev we pushed the boundaries of this concept to the limit tonight, with Willmott’s skip having an inspired game we won only 3 of the first 14 ends to be 18 adrift, however at a crucial stage at the end of the game we did win 3 ends to finish 7 22.
Editor’s Note: After the game Josh was of the opinion that his rink won the match for us in the end. Josh, it is a team game so in their own way each rink and individual contributed to the win, but to claim that your rink won it for us in the end with a 15 shot deficit is perhaps stretching it a little? 😍
This deficit might normally be too much to overcome, but it’s a team game and over on Larry’s rink with Mike, Keith (who’s been swanning about all over Europe, whilst we’ve been knuckling down to the hard work of bowls) and Calvin, this rink really stepped up. Always in front and having a purple patch in the middle pulling 14 shots over 4 ends eventually ran out 25 11 winners. 👍
On Jim’s rink with Will, Trev and Andy, again, always in front ,in a clearly hard fought battle where neither team scored more than a 2, we were pulled back conceding 4 ends on the trot, but proving another of my “pearls of wisdom”, if you drop shots make sure they are only singles, kept just far enough in front to help us win the game, finished 14 9
Very well done, everybody 🥳
Final against Bristol St Andrew’s Saturday 31 st August at Henleaze BC 10.00 in Whites.
Final league game against Willmott Park this Thursday at Redland and regular team members will be relieved to learn that Andy won’t be playing in this game (which will give all our ears a well earnt rest) but we have a “super sub” coming in to replace him……..
Match Report: Gloucestershire Cup 09/08/24
Home v Kingswood and Hanham: Won 57 38
The following report was written by Kevin French:
With the team winning these various cup games I’m having to write extra match reports and I’m running out of things to say which for me might be a first? 😁
Once again a solid performance against a team containing many competent players; with 3 K& H members qualified for Leamington in the triples, along with our own crew – we wish them both all the best 🤞
On Jim’s rink with Will, Trev and Andy normal service was resumed with both winning and racking up a dominant score only conceding 4 shots in the first 14 ends they reved up to be 23 4 ahead but then their foot came off the gas slightly towards the end but finished a fantastic 27 10.
Editor’s Note: A very tenuous car analogy there which I nearly removed but as Kevin is running out of things to say I will let it stand….. 🚙
On Josh’s rink with Mark, RKJ and Kev this was once again another example, in a combined score team game and the other rinks building a lead how a difference is made by keeping the deficit as low as possible. With the whole rink not really settling into the game we plugged away, resisted the option to play “glory shots” and although 3 12 down at end 10 finished 11 15.
On Larry’s rink with Mike, Jake and Calvin, traded shots early on but then you could see the whole rink was playing well and with woods always in the head this eventually paid off with a 19 11 win.
So yet again well done everybody 👏
Semi final and final Saturday 7th September at Wotton u Edge
P.s it was Rogers birthday yesterday, (which he kept very quiet – perhaps not wanting to buy everyone a drink?) – belate Happy Birthday Rog 🎂
Pps Kev managed to upset 3 skips this week:
One at Bristol when he called for an edge off a wing wood.
One Kingswood and Hanham skip when he informed the skip he should move away because it was Redland’s head.
Three josh (twice ) once because Kev’s woods were no where near the jack and second when Josh thought he had got away with not buying his opposition a drink but made him buy a kit kat for his opponent’s son instead – Josh, I know you were devastated but you still “saved” £ 2.10!
The “Redland bowls circus” moves onto Page Park for the Lloyd Trophy semi final against Willmott Park on Tuesday 14th 6.00pm
Match Report: NE Division 2
Redland Green v Page Park; 7-2; 55-34
The following report was written by Pete Jones:
Apologies in advance for the tabloid headline.
This was a top of the table clash!! And a sunny evening!
That was my opening line back in June. This evening it was Wet, Wet, Wet! But there was love in the in the air at the end of the evening as the results came in!!!
These were difficult conditions in which to bowl.
On Dave S’s, with Dave H, Rick and Wendy, we stumbled initially, 0-8 after 4 ends, but subsequently rallied to gain an important 15-15 draw.
On Keith’s rink, with Mike W, Mark D and Jon, there was never any real doubt as we raced to a 19-2 lead after 9. Final score was 29-6.
On Vince’s rink, with Phil, Dave E and Pete, we started well and ended well, but it was the bit in the middle that went wrong. 11-13