Waterside Bowls Tour To Isle Of Wight - 24th August - 29th August 2018
What a great few days in relatively sunny Shanklin - IOW .
Day 1: Departure.
As usual thanks to Roger & Lesley Mitchell's organisation everyone and everything went to plan and we caught our ferry at Lymington with no problems. Daish's hotel in Shanklin was our base for the 5 days and having stayed there about 5 years ago we were pleased to see not too much has changed. Hotel rooms were clean and tidy and food was very good.
Day 2: 1st Game at Camphill Bowling Club.
We managed to play the first game at Camphill Bowling club with a fair bit of rain but we are hardy souls so it was on with wets then off with the wets and on with the wets. We decided to cut ends to 18 and It was good fun and Camphill were very welcoming.
It was good start to the tour in that a although not important in the scheme of things we started with a good win.
Day 2: 2nd Game at Bembridge Bowling Club
This was a game I think everyone was looking forward to based on our previous encounter a few seasons ago. They are a really good bunch of people and as tradition dictates the Bembridge bowlers serenaded us again with the Club song. A number of Waterside Bowlers also joined the Bembridge ranks to aid in the rendition.
On the green it was really close encounter as we lost the match by 1 point which was a really good end to a great day.
I will mention that three Waterside Bowlers joined the legendary ranks of the Bembridge Bowlers "Wrong Bias" club and were subsequently fined £2 each by the President Of Bembridge, with fines going to his Presidents charity. In fear of my life I cannot name the guilty parties.
Day 3: 3rd Game at Cowes Medina Bowling Club
This was a game that we were unsure as to whether it would go ahead based on the weather forecast of torrential rain for the Sunday. Thanks to numerous phone calls etc and Cowes Medina managing to secure the local indoor green the game was still on. The local green however only had 4 rinks so the teams had to be re-organised so only 16 could play. This was shame but at least we managed to play all three matches.
As to the result , well as Waterside Bowlers know carpet is not our game but our ladies team of Sue Lewis-Parkes, Maureen Rowan, Gill dando, Pam Mold held up the pride of Waterside with an excellent win to claim top rink.
Once again many, many thanks to Roger and Lesley for all their hard work in organising the tour and we look for forward to next year. Thanks to Terry Benham for the Quizzes and for managing the tote where all profits go to club funds.
A few snapshots of the tour:
