South Park Bowls Club

Jonathan the Hand-ley gave Carl Bozeate a gentle stuffing in last nights grudge match at South Park. Despite Carl going in as favourite the bookies lost out with big odds as Jonathan turned on the style.

Spectators gathered from allover the place in this tense match, if only the same form could be produced on his unallocated cash!

Unfortunately our attempt to become a registered charity has failed. Since our original application the income barriers have changed from £1000 to £5000 meaning we no longer qualify to be a registered charity.

The organisation seems to think that this is better for us as we don’t have the obligation of normal trustess, however we find this very disappointing as for any grant or sponsorship these days mosts options for finance require a registered charity number to show auditors all transactions are kosher and not fraudulant.

After a long a drab debate at the Secretaries meeting requested, our appeal against our points deduction was a success.

We have officially been awarded back our 5 points deducted and Leeholme have been instructed to rearrange out fixture against them or both clubs may face penalties.

Scott Morland quoted ” I had full intentions of keeping my temper throughout the meeting, how unusual I failed but it was the right result in the end!”

This not only reinstates us in Division 1, this gives us 2 opportunities to avoid relegation. 8 points would guarantee safety, however Shildon Town only have 1 game left to play against top opposition so 4 or 5 points may keep us up.

Played Points
Shildon Town 17 31.5
South Park 16 29.5

Next Week is an improtant week for our bowls club.

Monday Night sees us in a Secretaries meeting for the Darlington and District League to discuss action taken against us from our away fixture with Leeholme this year.
We hope a sensible resolution can be agreed. We are battling for our 5 point deduction to be recinded and that the match takes place as soon as possible.

Tuesday night sees us in a meeting with Parkside Ladies which is a big step for us. We look to keep all parties happy in amalgamating the clubs and officially have PArkside LAdies as part of South Park BC.

Its official we are currently discussing Bill Morlands future at the club and negotiating a fee with the RA after he put the wrong bias on for the 2nd time this season.
Sadly it was all too costly as Graham Peacock beat him 21-11 in the District League Champion of Champions Final.
Despite a come back after being 13-3 down he was unable to keep this rhythm long enough to keep hold of the title he won alst year.

After a week of controversy (what else is new!) meaning our Division 1 status lies in the hands of our next 3 games and a AGM discussion we finally have good news to report.

Previously we have shown that we want South Park BC to improve on a yearly basis as a structure and this week has seen another possible major step.

Parkside Ladies were approached regarding them uniting with our club. They have struggled in recent years to put out a full team regularly and we would love to help them as well as ourselves in gaining our fist ever female league team.
The Parkside team have shown their full interest and are keen to come on board, we will be holding a meeting with their committee soon to discuss the best ways to unite them.

We are very hopeful about this as they have already shown a huge desire to also change their team name to South Park Ladies which has been blocked in the past by our club.

If successful this would be a wondeful achievement, we would now have 1 male team, 1 female team and 2 mixed teams. The only step required then is to gain a Vets team, watch out South Park Vets we will be approaching you soon!! - lol
Sadly this step maybe difficult as our relationship with the Vets is quite a poor one but wouldn’t it be great to have all clubs at the South Park united as one. If we could over the next 2 years gain 4 stable and free running teams it would be fantastic!

This week we picked up an excellent 3 1/2 points away at Shildon Town then a further 2 at home to the league leaders. When the league table is updated we should be hopefully off the bottom.

There are 3 teams in danger and we are finally starting to show a little form. Shildon Town and Cockton Hill are in the same danger as us and we really need to ensure we keep picking points and we may be able to escape the likely drop into Division 2.

Scott Morland quoted “I feel like I have just won at Worthing!”, as he defeated Sandra Hopkins 21-19 in the Mechtool Championship, after a comeback from 19-7 down.

In other news, Barry Hopkins Jnr has progressed to the Henderson Shield semi finals, after beating Sandra 21-5, the Junior Championship final, after beating Peter Binney 21-2, and the Mechtool Championship 2nd round, beating Keith Burton 21-10. After being disappointed in the South Park championship, he is aiming to defend the Works League Title he won last year.

There has been some progress made in the Town Competitions in recent weeks, as Barry Hopkins Jnr and Snr beat Steve Northam and Mark Ralphs of the RA 16-3 to reach the Cameron pairs Semi Finals, where an encounter with Andrew Kirtland seems very likely. The two Barry Hopkins’ and Glyn Jones are also in the Semi Finals of the Town Triples, to play Brinkburn Denes Ray Bowers rink, and the same 3 plus Bill Morland are up against Alan Stephensons rink from the RA in the Darlington Building Society Fours Semi Finals. Hopefully we can make it through in all of them, as the finals will be played on our home green at South Park, due to one of the Vets players being President this season, and this will surely give our lads a great advantage.

Bill Morland won the South Park Championship yet again after he beat Barry Hopkins Snr 21-15. After being lucky to knock out Barry Jnr in the previous round, he had a more comfortable win in the final. Bill now aims to win the district Champion of Champions for the second year running.

In other news, Barry Hopkins Jnr lost another singles match by a narrow margin as he went down 21-18 in the Co-op cup, the district two bowl singles, to Graham Peacock at Hundens. Not a bad effort, and after Barry had made his traditional comeback, from 13-4 down he just got pipped at the very end.

Despite being a dominant force over many years in the club championship Bill Morland was given a fright in his semi-final with Baz Junior.
It eventually finished 21-19