Most of our friendly matches take place within Surrey and Middlesex and we also have annual matches in Hertford and Wendover. In 2011 we also travelled down to Pyestock, for the first time, to renew battle with Farnborough Area Civil Service. This is now the only fixture that we have against any of the other Civil Service Areas. Since the closure of the bowling green at Chiswick we have to thank the following bowls clubs; Croydon, Imber Court, Springfield and West Ealing, for making their facilities available for us to host home games. Although classed as friendlies, all of our matches, against a mixture of clubs and associations, are keenly contested and at times played to a reasonably competitive standard.
We have a full programme of weekend and midweek matches and our 2011 match results are shown below:
Sun 15 May vs NPL BC at Imber Court 3 Rinks Lost 45 -
Sun 22 May vs Mid Surrey BC at Old Deer Park 3 Rinks WON 58 - 46
Sun 29 May vs Cambridge Park BC at Twickenham 4 Rinks Lost 65 - 92
Wed 09 Jun vs North Sheen BC at North Sheen 5 Rinks WON 103 - 94
Wed 16 Jun vs Staines BC at Staines 4 Rinks WON 93 - 54
Thu 23 Jun vs Croydon BC at Croydon 4 Rinks WON 91 - 66
Sun 26 Jun vs Harrodians BC at Hawkers YMCA 3 Rinks Lost 45 - 51
Wed 29 Jun vs Bishop Duppas BC at Walton 4 Rinks WON 76 - 68
Thu 07 Jul vs Wallington BC at Wallington 4 Rinks WON 76 - 55
Sun 10 Jul vs Farnborough CS at Pyestock 4 Rinks Lost 65 - 101
Sun 17 Jul vs Ealing & District BA at Ealing 4 Rinks WON 77 - 63
Sun 24 Jul Bob Harding Memorial Match at Hertford 6 Rinks Lost 83 -149
Tue 2 Aug vs Middlesex HVPBA at West Ealing 5 Rinks WON 92 - 89
Thu 11 Aug vs Purley Bury BC at Purley Bury 4 Rinks WON 81 - 68
Sun 14 Aug vs Purley BC at Purley 4 Rinks WON 82 - 63
Thu 18 Aug vs MOD at Croydon 3 Rinks Lost 63 - 66
Sun 21 Aug vs Wendover BC at Wendover 5 Rinks Lost 89 - 95
Thu 25 Aug vs Sutton & District BA at Wallington 5 Rinks WON 104 - 94
Wed 07 Sep vs Malden Manor BC at Malden 4 Rinks WON 80 - 54
Tue 20 Sep vs Imber Court BC at Molesey 4 Rinks WON 95 - 77
Of the 20 matches played, we managed to win 13 and lose 7. Total shots for was 1573 and against was 1501. This gave us an overall shot difference of plus 72. Of the seven games that we lost four were lost by 6 shots or less - so we really performed as well, if not better, than in previous seasons.
All matches are open to both male and female bowlers. Most of our members belong to their own clubs so we do not expect members to support our matches other than on a casual basis, but obviously the more they are able to play the better it is for the future of Civil Service bowling.
Whilst we understand that bowlers need to put their home clubs first, we have a good spread both of bowlers who might only be able to play one or two games a season and bowlers who are able to play in the majority our matches.
