The club is introducing a change to coaching, to offer the best training there will now be 6 week courses to allow people to learn together. The aim of the course is to build skills and confidence so that new bowlers will feel more confident about taking part in other events the club offers including leagues.

The six week course will need to be pre-booked to avoid overbooking and a £15 fee paid in advance. The club will also be selling gift vouchers so you can give the gift of coaching to a friend or family member.

Courses are due to start on the following dates:
12th November 2022
7th January 2023
18th February 2023

Oliver Fowler made his international début as part of the twelve strong England team that took part in the British Isles Indoor Bowls Council's Under 18s Mixed Championship held at Ballybrakes IBC, Northern Ireland. The Channel Islands and Ireland fielded teams while England, Scotland and Wales fielded two teams. Each team consisted of five players plus a reserve which would compete in Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours. Oliver was part of the second England team and competed in the Pairs and Fours.

The pairs would be played over two sets of nine ends with a one end tie break if needed. Yeovil's Shannon Crouch was his pairs partner. Their first game was against the Channel Islands (Chloe Greecham and Jared Brown) who got off to a good start, 5-0 up after two ends. A fourth end five helped the English pair take the lead but the Channel Islanders retook the lead with two ends to go and took the first set 10-8. Greecham and Brown again started well in the second set, heading into the final end leading by two. That left Crouch and Fowler needed three shots to force a tie break, unfortunately they dropped a shot to lose the second set 6-9. That defeat meant that their remaining two games would decide their final position between fifth and eighth.

Their next game was against the Scotland First team, Bradley Buchan and Darren Weir. This game would determine if their final game was the fifth/sixth play-off or seventh/eighth. The two Scots started well and took the first set 9-4. Crouch and Fowler took first blood in the second set but dropped a second end four. They recovered well to lead 11-4 with three ends left to play. A double and treble brought the deficit down to two but the English duo held their nerve to take the second set 12-9 and force the tie break. Crouch and Fowler continued their good form to win the tie break.

Their opponents in the fifth/sixth play-off would be the other Scottish team, Kimberley Dodds and Alastair Nimmo. A steady start helped Crouch and Fowler reach six ends leading 9-3, Scotland hit back with a pair of doubles but the English duo held on to win 9-8. Scotland hit the ground running in the second set, 6-2 after three ends became 11-2 after six. Both sides increased their scores by three, Scotland taking the set 14-5. The Scots also took the tie break, leaving Crouch and Fowler sixth.

The team for the fours consisted of Imogen Jenner (Swale), Shannon Crouch (Yeovil), Oliver Fowler and Jack Groves (Watchet). These games would be two sets of six ends with a tie break if needed. Their first game was against the second Scottish four of Kimberley Dodds, Megan Kivlin, Carrie McLean and Jack McNab. The Scots opened with a four but the English replied with a double and single. A treble and single left Fowler and co five adrift with one end left, Scotland took the first set 8-5. The tables were turned in the second set, England opened with a four and Scotland responded with a double. England hit a pair of singles and a pair of fours to take the set 14-2 and force a tie break. The Scottish broke English hearts to take the tie break, relegating them to the lower half play-offs.

The Aaron Colman, Shauna O'Neill, Michael Hadley and Sam Barkley representing Ireland were their opponents to decide if they'd be playing for fifth/sixth place or seventh/eighth. Fowler and co dominated the first set, limiting the Irish to one shot on the way to a 10-1 win. Midway through the second set the scores were tied 3-3 but the Irish hit a brace of twos to lead by four heading into the last end. To avoid a tie break the English team needed to score four or more but they could only get three. The English had the last laugh by taking the tie break.

The battle for fifth place saw Fowler and co take on the first Scottish team (Carla Banks, Bradley Buchan, Graeme McLean and Jak Miller). A third end treble gave the Scots a 5-3 lead but Fowler and co cut that down to one with the last end to play, the Scots hit two to win 7-4. A six on the second end for the Scottish team left the English chasing the game, a fifth end five helped cut the deficit but the Scots took the second set 13-6, leaving Fowler and co in sixth place.

Each place was awarded a certain number of points and the points for the team (or teams in the case of England, Scotland and Wales) totalled and divided by four (eight for the sides fielding two teams) to determine where each nation finished. With an average of 7 points England won the gold medal, Scotland took silver with an average of 5.5, Ireland bronze with 3.75, Channel Islands fourth with 3.5 and Wales fifth on 3.38 points.​

Saturday 21st November 2015 7:15pm

Entertainment Night in aid of the Cardiac Rehab Unit at St Cross Hospital.

Featuring:

Gary Haigh (Magician)
Neil Warner (Comedian)
Gemma Louise Doyle (International Vocal Artist)

Tickets are £7 each and available from Colin Hall or Mike Taylor (Take Heart - 01788 568150)

​Ticket price and tombola on the night.

Entries for this seasons club competitions need to be in no later than 24th October 2015.

​Entry forms are available on the notice board (roughly level with rink 3).

On Saturday 24th October at 7:15pm the club is holding a quiz night to help raise funds for club competitions.

​Cost is £4 per person with a maximum of 6 per team.

Welcome for what I hope will be an enjoyable season for all our members. To all those with the competitive edge to their bowls, a most successful season both in their individual quests and in the team competitions. If we can manage to go one further than last season in all those competitions it will have been a creditable performance by all who are fortunate to be involved.

The close season has been an extremely busy one for the Staff which has resulted in the toilet wing and the entrance hall being completed, along with the additional notice board and the tidying up of the entrance hall in general.

The toilet wing was a joint effort by the Improvement Fund and the Club, which I hope that you will agree was a long overdue refurbishment of that area. I would like to thank the Improvement Fund for supporting this major project and hopefully we can do the same again at a later date.

Our renewable energy project has been stalled due to some unforeseen problems experienced by Emotion Energy in recent weeks. However, I am able to inform you that at a meeting held in the Club on Tuesday 15 September 2015, new suppliers of LED lighting and indeed Bio mass heating have been engaged and progress should be made on both items in the near future. The Company engaged to design and provide and retro fit the LED lights throughout the bowls club is a Korean company that is the global leader in Sports lighting. They are as a group greatly interested in all areas of sports lighting but bowls clubs is an entirely new area that they are definitely keen on getting involved in. Post the meeting on the 15 th Sept. it was agreed that the lighting system would be installed by the end of October 2015. The Bio mass heating system involves a further meeting later this month with the company engaged on that part of the project Bardon Energy and the owner is coming down to complete the survey, hopefully in the next fortnight. So after a disappointing beginning due to unexpected problems that beset Emotion energy I am relieved to be able to report that it would appear that we are back on track. So as things develop I will endeavour to keep the membership informed.

The next piece of unwanted news concerns the green. After the scheduled stretch last Thursday a report was drafted by the maintenance team as to a certain amount of remedial work was now required before they would be in a position where they could actually stretch the carpet to acquire a decent speed out of the carpet.

As a consequence both myself and Sarah are in a dispute as to why this work was not brought to our attention back in last September when we had our new carpet and underlay put down.

Apparently the gripper batons are in a poor state and need replacing along with the new 2” gripper strips. Also the overhang of the ditch side floor boards need trimming, this after a year into the new carpet.

We are awaiting a call from Dale’s new maintenance manager to find out just exactly what they Dale’s need to do to put it right. Watch this space, as soon as we are aware of the way ahead I will inform the membership. We still remain in dispute with Dale’s as the remedial work will now be carried out on 27 Sept which means that the green will be out of use for the whole of that day. There is a cost and that is the point that remains an issue, obviously we are trying to remove that cost or secure further interim stretches/s as required at no additional costs to the Club.

With the introduction of the new Workplace Pension Scheme, we have had to purchase a new laptop to cope with the increased data required and have purchased one with sufficient spare memory and storage capacity to see us thru’ for the life of the lap top.

So again we have had some capital expenses during the close season but we are assured by our Accountants that we are behaving in a responsible manner and that the Club remains sound in that area.

The summer indoor leagues have run well and there seems to be an increasing demand for members to move indoors during that period. Many thanks to all those members who played and supported the summer leagues it has brought in revenue that we might not have had.

The FANTASTIC 5’s have had a good season with some good and some poor results. RUGBY “A” were unfortunate not to make the competition play offs this season, losing a one bowl shoot out by a single shot, so Melton Pork pies are thru and we wish them success this year for the 3rd year running. Latest news is that they are now once again in the final stages of this very good competition, which is being held at Egham IBC later this month.

There are a couple of important rules changes, one which comes into play in the Leagues from the opening day of the season 14 September 2015, this is as follows:-

If the jack when delivered is A) not travelled a distance of 23 meters, B) goes into the ditch or C) goes off the rink. IT will NOT be returned, but set on the T – 2 meters from the ditch and the mat placed at the option of the opposing team.

The above rule has been incorporated into the league rules and is displayed within the Club on the Ladies and Men’s notice boards.

The second change which will come into effect next year in January/February 2016 upon entering your teams in the various leagues, the registration fee will be paid at the same time and is non-refundable.

This season sees the return of the Warwick Trophy commencing in December and completing one week before the County Championship finals. Rules will appear on the Men’s notice board once ratified at the first County Management meeting being held at Solihull on 21 st September 2015.

We have this year, in June been awarded our Club mark accreditation, this is awarded to sports clubs who have met high quality standards in A) the playing activity/programme, B) duty of care and welfare, C) knowing your club and its community and finally Club Management. We will be re-assessed in June 2018 to ensure that those standards are still applicable and being maintained in all categories. I would like to thank the following members who volunteered to see this task thru, Janet and Bob Arkell, Ron and Julia Scott, Lesley Howes, Sarah Simpson, Beverly Fowler, Emma O’Dowd and Hannah Milde from Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire County Sports Partnership, along with myself acting as co-ordinator. A fantastic job, patiently done, so well done and many thanks for all your support especially during the many re-writes that we had to go thru, it was very much appreciated.

Next month, we have the Club’s newest International player travelling to Northern Ireland to compete in the quadrangular Under 18’s meeting. We wish Oliver Fowler a most successful debut and sincerely hope that this is the beginning of many years at this level.

A number of members from the Club are going along to support him and I hope that England can come away with another win overall for the fourth successive year. Hope that it is an enjoyable weekend.

Following on from that we have Tom Ward competing in the National Finals of the EBYDS at Melton on 18 October, why not come along and support him, the standard of bowling is very high and is always played with great enthusiasm.

Finally in closing I would like to wish all the members involved in National team competitions, and individual competitions success, to those other members enjoy the leagues and this year think about entering the Club competitions, but to everyone whatever level you are playing at enjoy the sport for what it is. Support our Gala days, the Staff and your Board as we endeavour to take the Club forward in the community, county and country.

David R.Murley

The Summer season is nearly over and Thornfield will soon be opening it's doors to welcome you all in from the rain.

Membership rates for the upcoming season are: £48 or £15 for those 21 or under.
Rink fees are £3.20 for members and £5.00 for non-members

Leagues resume on Monday 14th September.

The first of our charity galas is on Sunday 27th September in aid of the Guide Dogs. There will also be a table top sale (tables available for free, contact club for more info) and a Bowls-4-Free session from noon until the start of the gala.

Thornfield member Mandy Dahlgren, who became a volunteer for the Air Ambulance after needing their help after a serious accident, held a beach party themed disco night with all money raised going to help keep the helicopters flying, making that often vital difference. Despite a modest turnout the night raised nearly £600.

See the Air Ambulance report here for more details