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Malaga
Province does not have the extensive competitive Summer Calendar
offered by the Costa Blanca region. However Superbowl ensured our
Membership could enjoy competitive Bowling throughout May, June and
July thanks to a number of
“in-house” initiatives as well as the Federated League Calendar.
Sadly, on this occasion, the Provincial Federation had to suspend
the Monday Triples League due to a lack of interest from several
Clubs. However, the Kings Cup League was contested and Superbowl won
the Title for the first time despite having a tough battle with
their closest challengers from Mijas.
The vacant Monday “slot” was used effectively for 6 weeks. Benavista
linked up with Superbowl and the Clubs staged a series of TEAM 5 and
TEAM 9 Matches. The former was won convincingly by Benavista whilst
Superbowl won the 9’s in similar style. Both Clubs were able to
“blood” less experienced Bowlers and this will certainly help their
Winter campaigns which start in October.
On the domestic scene, the Club introduced a “Ladder” Competition to
run on its Saturday Club Day. 26 Members competed, at some stage,
over the 10 week period with their best six scores counting to
determine their average. The Winner was John Cornwell who bowled
superbly in all of his Pairs and Triples games. He competed on 8
occasions and he was able to drop his two lowest scores ( 15 and 16
) to arrive at an average of 21.5 over his other six. In second
place was Christine Blackburn who, despite having to count a 12,
still managed a creditable average of 20.3.
A further initiative, from Committee Member Andy Salmon, was the
introduction of an “Open Green” Tournament played in the format of
Crown Green Bowling. This attracted considerable support on
Wednesday evenings and, after a few weeks of Singles, a Pairs format
was introduced. For three weeks, Andy himself partnered
10 year old James Hawkins ( Grandson of Club Member John Hawkins )
and they performed with distinction each week losing in the Final on
one occasion to the experienced pairing of Terry Barrett and Pat
Fisher.
John went one better than James when he won the event in convincing
style with Murray Johns. They won all seven of their games and
defeated previous winners, John & Eleanor Morgan, in the Final.
The Club was also pleased to welcome Kalle Altonen, Hannu Mikkola
and Jiri Sorvari, three visitors from Finland. These friends, who
graduated from University together, have developed a mutual interest
in Bowls and play the “short Mat” format in their own Country. -
http://www.bowls.fi/
Kalle and Hannu commentate on Bowls for Eurosport in their own
Country but they are very much pioneers in Finland where, as yet,
they are the only regular Bowlers. This means they do not have the
opportunity of playing as a Team so they were more than happy to
take on Andy Salmon, Craig Lewis & Murray Johns during their visit.
Playing as a Team for the first time, and on a surface which was
somewhat alien to them, proved to be too much of a challenge but we
are sure they will take back fond memories of their visit to Malaga
Province.
Kalle, Hannu and Jiri were using their time on the Coast as a
Holiday / “fact finding” mission and they will have learned much
from their visit. Superbowl’s Members wish them well with their
project and, perhaps in the not too distant future, we will be
visiting them on a Bowls’ Tour and see them competing on the World
Bowls stage.
In closing this Press Release, the Club would like to thank
everyone, Members and Visitors alike, for making the Summer of 2009
such a successful one. We now look forward to the return of our
“Seasonal Members” for the Winter Programme.
Murray Johns ( Competition Secretary ) 30 July, 2009 |
