Thame Bowls Club Weekly Newsletter No 4/2026
Wednesday 6th May
Essex County Bowling Association came to Thame, and it was an early start for Wendy, Janet and Sandra, to make up rolls for our guests to purchase for their lunch. Wendy had also made three cakes for the afternoon game.
Our guests arrived and after some introduction, played a triples game amongst themselves prior to lunch. For the afternoon game we played a rinks match over 18 ends. On Rink 1 we had Ken King, Bill Giles, Tony Battaglia and John Holmes with a score of 21 to 15. On Rink 2 Adrian Wilcox, Phil Reed, Ken Lewis and Keith Brooks played catch up with a loss of 19 to 24. On Rink 3 Ian Rutherford, Colin French, Paul Spencer and Vic Webb managed a draw of 17 each. On Rink 4 Dave White, Leonard Grimshaw, Ian Griffiths and Geoff Roynon had a loss of 9 to 20. On Rink 5, Chris Shannon, Mel Warner, Les Canfield and Barry Green also had a loss of 10 to 20, and finally on Rink 6 John Rawson, Dávid Slawson, Trevor Watkins and John Wilkinson had a win of 20 to13. Overall, Thame lost 96 to Essex 109 but a good afternoon bowling with friendly opposition.
Photos were taken and Essex President, Richard Strauss presented Thame President Maire with a memento. Many thanks to the ladies for the catering, Peter Dawe for running the bar and Chris Shannon for organising the day after being requested by Essex for the event and again Chris and his team for the green.
Thursday 7th May
Thame men’s League team started their annual matches in the Oxfordshire Bowls League in an away fixture against Oxford City and County B and had a very convincing victory by 82 shots to 52 giving them five and a half points to a half. The best performing rink was skipped by David White ably supported by Phil Reed, Ken King and Bill Giles with a score of 26 -7.
Saturday 9th May
Saturday was another great day for bowling weather wise, whilst the overall result was a disappointing 51 shots to Thame and 63 to Adderbury.
The rinks were very encouraging with 1 win 1 draw and 2 losses. Our winning rink was all ladies, Philippa Feltham, Wendy Mannix, Heather Hallchurch and Jenny Reed. This was a great bowling performance. At the halfway stage they were 8 - 4 down, at the 15th end they were 11 shots all and Adderbury took the 16th by 3 shots. The response by our ladies was immediate, taking the 17th by 3! 14 all going into the final end and what a final end it turned out to be! Adderbury holding 1, with the skips to bowl 1 each, Jenny Reed steps up to deliver the perfect wood to displace the Adderbury shot wood. The Adderbury Skip could do nothing about it. Well done, a great performance. Thanks to all members attending, and a special thanks to Sandra French for looking after the reserve rink. Ken King.
Monday 11th May
Thame ladies played against Hazells and the day was overcast and cold but thankfully it didn’t rain. We had three triples playing and on Rink 3 with June Greene, Diane Mackriell and Pauline Holmes saw the latter two struggling for form. However, some accurate bowling from June saved the day and we managed a close loss 10 -11.
Sandra French, Wendy Mannix and Carol Slawson, who was playing skip for the first time, on Rink 2 quickly scored a comfortable lead which they never lost. They had a very creditable score of 20-10 to win the match. Rink 4 with the ever-reliable trio of Jan Sargeant, Philippa Feltham and Heather Hallchurch romped away and never looked like being challenged. They were our winning rink with a score of 27-6. The overall score was Thame 58 - Hazells 28.
Well done ladies, another sound win. Thank you for your hard work. Our return match with Hazells is on the 13th of July. Pauline Holmes.
15.5.2026
