BOGNOR REGIS BOWLS TOURISTS
B.R.B.T. Tour to Exmouth 2012
A last minute setback as Barry was admitted to hospital for an operation, which fortunately was successful. However that robbed the Tour of one of its key skips.
New Tourists John Edwards and Mike Philpott picked up the task of skipping and together with other new Tourists Len Hall, Ian Linfield and John Weartherall enabled us to complete all of our fixtures with a degree of success.
Two wins, one very close result against (just two points) and three losses in only one of which, Madeirs B.C. were we comprehensively out bowled. All Clubs gave us due respect by fielding current County and Middleton Cup players so all games were both competitive as well as being friendly. Up to the last day our overall shot difference was minus 8 after 5 matches.
We especially appreciated the wonderful facilities that most Clubs in that Region enjoy, making our local Club facilities look abysmal.
Only one major hiccup with fixtures where at Dawlish B.C. we turned up ready to play 6 Men's Triples at 2pm and they expected 6 mixed rinks at 2.30pm. Chaos ensued and they ended up organising a mixture of both with 5 of their bowlers turning on one rink not knowing which of thm was to play for us? Our satisfaction was only in that we won that match easily. However with all that confusion we did manage to forget to load Ron Banthorpe (bowler and coach driver) bowls bag, and had to go back the next day to retrieve it. For this we are indebted to Keith Davies who fortunately had come down by car. Ron's careful driving was appreciated, but what's a view of an industrial estate and a few miles among friends?
Pleasant memories, yes the sight of Len slowly sinking to the floor as his chair collapsed, and of our smooth if "chilly up top" boat trip uo the estuary to Topsham.
Lastly the winners:- Ian the Frank Buck Cup and Tommy the Gerry Mitchell Plate.
We were all winners, it was a wonderful successful Tour.
Arthur Richardson