My tour to Bournemouth finally took place over the 16th to 19th July, with great thanks to Eunice, Keith and Rodney who have spent nearly 2 years organising this due to the pandemic. We were based at the Elstead Hotel who kept us well fed and watered. 

As for the tour itself the weather was outstanding (albeit a bit too hot on occasions) which the younger members of our party appreciated as it allowed them to have one or two more drinks to keep them hydrated (not necessarily water though). 

On the Friday we were entertained by Bournemouth Bowling Club who provided us with a meal on arrival but had to go to the supermarket to buy more beer as the bar quite quickly was empty. As for the result Royston managed to sneak a win mainly down to the 4 lads (Jamie, Matt, Adrian and Craig) even though they had no idea what they were doing. The President though had a small loss.

Saturday brought about a trip to Atherley Bowls Club and unfortunately a small defeat by 5 shots with the President losing again, but this was down to the other rinks despite them winning they dropped 4 shots each on the last end of three of the rinks whilst the President managed to pick up 2 shots, so as you can see it was their fault as they didn’t score enough to cover the Presidents defeat.

On Sunday we were at Brockenhurst Bowling Club within the New Forest where we came away with a win by 20 shots, but again the President lost for the third time, but this was mainly due to his stickers being swapped over on his woods and bowling 2 wrong biases, plus one other member of his rink betting on himself to be the highest losing rink by mistake.

Finally on Monday we travelled to Reading to play Suttons Bowling Club on our way home, a club with wonderful facilities and green, who supplied us with rolls before the game and a meal afterwards. As for the game history was in the making in that “Top Rink Jamie” was going for the grand slam of being the highest winning rink, while the President was going for the grand slam of being the highest losing rink. Unfortunately, neither were able to achieve this with Jamie losing out to Matt and the President managing to win his final game even if this was by only 3 shots. The club managing to win the match overall by 22 shots. 

So, a very enjoyable tour came to an end with 3 wins out of 4 for which the President would like to thank all the tourists for going and making these a memorable 4 days.

Steve Kilford

President