Short Mat

Match Report – Wendover Dark Greens away 2nd December 2024

Our best away scores since we joined the League in 2022 are 8, away at Bierton in December 2022 followed by 7, away to Stewkley in March this year.

So it’s a really good feeling to record our first 10-0 away victory this week against Wendover Dark Greens.  

The overall shots score was 39-25 which disguises how tight some of the games were.  The big winners were Norman, Geoff and Colin with a 14-7 victory.  The other games were close until the final end with Irene, Heather and Bill winning 8-6, Jenny, Jamie and Ian 8-6 and Tom, David and Chris 9-6 (having pulled it back from being 1-6 down at the half way stage).

Congratulations all on a good evening’s work.    

Match Report – Stewkley away 26th November 2024

The less said about this the better.  Suffice to say we were severely challenged by Stewkley’s mats on this occasion and lost 10-0.  They were on form and blew us away.  When we went to Stewkley in March this year we won 7-3 so we can do well there, but sadly not this time.

Match Report – Marsh Gibbon home 19th November 2024

We were so close again to a 10-0 win, but like in our last home match, we missed it by a whisker, this time winning 8-2 against the team that finished 2nd in the league last year.  A very good result for us.  

In the first half Jenny, Geoff and Colin found themselves 4-1 down after 5 ends but did brilliantly to pull it back to win 10-5.  Irene, Heather and Bill were 8-8 going into the last end and looked odds on to win, holding a well tucked away 1 shot but a fortunate bowl from their skip in the final knockings stole the game.  However in the 2nd half Tom, Norman and Chris and Philippa, Jamie and Ian won handsomely for us to take the match 43-25.  

Match Report – Winslow away 12th November 2024

Following on from last week’s improvement on last Winter’s results, we lost by a smaller margin at Winslow than we did last time around.  This time we lost 7-3 on their fast mats with some strange runs in them, which meant a bowl homing in on its’ target would suddenly veer away against the bias!

In many event, 3 points away from home is ok.  Jamie, Colin and Chris got the 2 points for us and they played very well.  Philippa, Heather and Ian gained the one point but could and maybe should have won as they were holding the lead until the last end – I blame the skip!

Match Report – Beacon home 5th November 2024

We had a great 9-1 win at home against one of the better teams in the league.  Last year we beat them 8-2 so we achieved a one point improvement this time around, no mean feat. 

We had wins for Di, Geoff and Les, Tom, Heather and Colin, Jamie, Jenny and Chris.  Byron, Roger and Bill got a point in their tied game, taking us so close to our first 10-0 this season.  Overall we won 53-29 on shots which helps our short difference no end!

Match Report – Chinnor away 21st October 2024

Playing Chinnor at their home base is never easy.  The perennial league champions beat us 9-1 but we gave them a bit of a fright with Tom, Dave and Chris taking a point from them and Jamie, Norman and Ian losing in their game by just 1 shot.  Got to mention Jamie’s debut performance which was amazing, especially on an unfamiliar and faster mat than ours; he really enjoyed it and it’s great to have him aboard. 

Match Report – Wendover Light Greens home 15th October 2024

We had mixed success against the Light Greens, losing 4-6. Irene,  Heather and Bill did brilliantly to win 19-4 in their first half encounter but we lost narrowly in the remaining three.  Fortunately Bill’s team’s victory was enough to give us the extra 2 points on shots 33-30.

Match Report – Bierton away 7th October 2024

An amazing start to our short mat season this week resulted in us taking 4 points from an away match at Bierton.  We lost 6-4 but would have gladly settled for that before we started, especially as we only came away with 2 points last year.  Irene, Heather and Bill led us off with a great 11 v 5 first half win on Mat 1 and then Roger, Colin and Chris won 10 v 6 on the same mat in the second half.  We were not so successful on mat 2 with losses of 12 v 5 and 8 v 3 so the result was only a very narrow 2 shots in Bierton’s favour overall.  Next week we hope for a win at home against Wendover Light Green. 

Match Report – Winslow home 2nd April 2024

The season was rounded off in fine style with a convincing 10-0 home win over Winslow – the team that pipped us into 7^th spot in last year’s competition. 12 months on and we have finished 17 points clear of them in 6^th, thus proving how much we have improved in only our 2^nd season in the league.

Match Report – Chinnor home 26th March 2024

Solid performances throughout the ten ends by Jenny, Geoff, and Les resulted in an impressive 18-3 win to close the 1st half with two guaranteed points.  Bill H delivered a killer last wood of the night sending the jack to teammates Irene and Heather’s waiting woods which scored four shots on the final end, a 14-6 win and two more points in the bag. The significance of the end meant that we achieved two further points for overall shot victory on the night 40-38 and inflicted on them Chinnor’s only 2nd defeat of the season.  Chinnor were crowned league winners last week, so an excellent achievement.

Match Report – Wendover Dark Greens away 20th March 2024

Sandra, Deirdre and Les performed admirably, running out comfortable winners 13-5 on their mat in the 1^st half. Things were looking promising after the tea break when both scoreboards read 6-2 in our favour at the mid-way mark. Sadly, the home side rallied back to win both games, leaving us with just 2 points from the night.

Match Report – Stewkley away 5th March 2024

Coming away from Stewkley with 2 wins and a draw on tricky mats was a fantastic achievement.  The 2 bonus points gained from a narrow 32-29 shots advantage meant we achieved 7 points on the night and leaves us 2 points away from 5^th place in the league.  As a comparison, we managed 2 points from last year’s corresponding fixture.  There are too many highlights from the evening to mention, other than to congratulate and thank all 12 players for a sterling all round performance.

Match Report – Marsh Gibbon away 27th February 2024

An away match against in form Marsh Gibbon looked a tough fixture on paper, and so it proved as we returned empty handed without any points from the four games.  That being said, none of the scores were one sided and we left with many positives to take into next week’s mid-table away fixture at Stewkley.

Match Report – Beacon home 20th February 2024

After a two-month break, it was back to the league again this week.  The proof that roll-up practices during that time to acclimatise to the new mats proved dividend with a resounding 8-2 victory against Beacon, who were 2^nd in the league prior to the game.  Three comfortable wins for Irene, Heather and Bill H, Jenny, Geoff and Les, and Sandra, Deirdre and Ian.  Tom, Norman and Colin, the latter stepping in at the 11^th hour, put up a resilient fight against Ed, Harry and Peter who seemed the only visitors to master our mats.  An overall shot victory of 49-22 could well prove pivotal at the end of the season should points be level.

Match Report – Wendover Light Greens away 13th December 2023

We played well on all 4 mats but could only win on one, with Tom, Roger and Chris winning that one by just one shot.  We lost overall by 39-26 shots but it didn’t feel like it with narrow last end losses on a couple of the other mats.

We now enter a mid-Winter break of several weeks until we play our next match at home on 20th February.  In the meantime we will be putting in a lot of practice on home “turf”.

Match Report – Bierton home 5th December 2023

We gained revenge for an 8-2 defeat away by winning at home by the same score.  Pick of the three winning mats was Sandra, Geoff and Les who won 17-2 and overall we totalled 41 shots against Bierton’s 27. 

Match Report – Wendover Dark Greens home 28th November 2023

Disappointingly we could only draw 5-5 at home against the league’s bottom team Wendover Dark Greens.  We won on one mat played by Terri, Norman and Ian and drew on another with Di, Deirdre and Bill G.  We were fortunate to win the extra 2 points needed by just one shot to win overall 30-29.

Match Report – Winslow away 21st November 2023

We didn’t do well at Winslow last year, losing 10-0, having beaten them 10-0 at home.  Again their mats proved a challenge to many of us but this time we did slightly better only losing 8-2.  Irene, Heather and Bill H won well on their mat and overall we lost by just 5 shots 38-33.

Match Report – Stewkley home 14th November 2023

At home against Stewkley we achieved our best ever win since joining the league last year with a 10-0 result.  Last season against them at home we lost 8-2, so can claim great progress.  

Obviously we won all 4 triples. Jenny, Geoff and Les built their win steadily and were never behind in their 8 shots to 3 victory.  

Di, Deirdre and Ian were struggling at 7-0 down after 3 ends and 9-3 down after 6 ends, but 12 shots accumulated over the remaining 4 ends meant they ran out winners 15-9.  

Tom, Colin and Chris were ahead all the way through and won comfortably 12-4 on a joint top winning mat. 

Irene, Heather and Bill were almost neck and neck at 7-6 ahead after the 8th end but a massive 6 shots on the 9th guaranteed a comfortable win of 14-6 to be on the other joint top winning mat.

Thanks to Philippa, Terry, Keith and Sandra who came to support us, it makes all the difference and our 10 points has enabled us to overtake Stewkley into 5th place.  It couldn’t have been better.  

Match Report – Marsh Gibbon home 7th November 2023

We played 2nd placed Marsh Gibbon this week at home and won 6 points to 4 thanks to first half wins by Jenny, Norman and Les on one mat and Sandra, Colin and Ian on the other.  Going into the 2nd half of the evening we had an overall lead of 6 shots and thankfully, although we lost on both mats in that 2nd half, we dropped only 3 shots overall to gain the extra 2 points. 

Match Report – Beacon away 31st October 2023

We went to play a good and experienced team at Beacon who are 3rd in the league and came away with an excellent 4 points. In fact it was very nearly 6, having only lost overall on shots 32-30. Irene, Heather and Bill H had a superb 14-2 win on their mat and Sandra, Deirdre and Les had a brilliant close game winning 7-6 by scoring 2 shots on the final end. Sadly their effort couldn’t be matched in the other head to heads, but we would certainly have settled for 4 points away before the match!

Match Report – Wendover Light Greens home 24th October 2023 

Our first home game this season brought our first win 6-4 against the Wendover Light Greens. We lost the first half of the evening but made up for that in the 2nd half with winners Irene, Heather and Bill H on one mat and Jenny, Geoff and Ian on the other. Overall the shots totals were tight at 34-31 for the home side. 

Match Report – Bierton away 16th October 2023 

We found it difficult to adapt our game on Bierton’s mats. As a consequence we only managed to gain 2 points won by Di, Jenny and Ian in a 8-2 loss. 

Match Report – Chinnor away 2nd October 2023 

Our first game of the new season was unfortunately away at perennial league champions Chinnor who play year round whereas most of us have only just finished playing outdoors.  Perhaps inevitably in the circumstances we lost and failed to pick up any points.  Nevertheless we played some decent bowls and both our teams in the 2nd half of the evening ran Chinnor close.

Match Report – Marsh Gibbon away 4th April 

Our final game of the short mat season was away to 3rd placed Marsh Gibbon.  Ideally we needed 4 points to ensure we finished above Winslow but sadly that wasn’t to be given we finished up on the wrong side of a 7-3 defeat.  Deirdre, Norman and BillG had an excellent win 10-9 and having gone into the final end at 4-9 down, then picked up a stunning 6 shots on the 10th.  None of us have managed to get close to that score on a single end all season!  

Match Report – Wendover Dark Green home 29th March

Wendover Dark Green are bottom of the league so we hoped we could win this match convincingly. In the event we won 7-3 with the usual wins at home for both BillG and BillH supported respectively by Byron and Norman and Irene and Heather.

Match Report – Beacon away 28th March 

Having beaten 2nd placed Beacon at home only 2 weeks ago, we expected a tough match on their home turf and that’s what we got.  We lost 7-3 with shots overall 44-17.  The single mat we won on was played by Di, Colin and Ian.

Match Report – Winslow away 21st March

Having beaten Winslow 10-0 a couple of weeks ago, we travelled with optimism but reckoned without the problem of playing on mats so very different from ours.  So Winslow exacted revenge by winning 10-0 and 46-18 shots overall, an evening best forgotten.  

Match Report – Beacon home 14th March 

We enjoyed a convincing win against 2nd placed Beacon by 41 shots to 21 although the result was only 6-4 points given we won on just 2 of the 4 mats.  The main reason we won so heavily on shots was due to Coin, Deirdre and BillG winning their game 20-1 and Sandra, Heather and BillH winning their game 16-1.  Sadly our teams on the other 2 mats couldn’t match our opposition.  Chances are the return match in a fortnight’s time on unfamiliar mats will be a different story.

Match Report – Chinnor away 6th March 

This was always going to be a challenging evening.  Chinnor are runaway league leaders who had won all of their 11 matches this season and are packed with County players.  However we ran them incredibly close with a shots overall score of 32-35.  Despite the closeness in shots we only earned 2 points, losing 2-8, because we only won on one of the four mats.  Deirdre, Norman and Bill Giles were our stars of the night winning 13 shots to 4 in their game.

Match Report – Winslow home 28th February 

We made up for last weeks away defeat with a resounding 10-0 victory at home against Winslow.  Irene, Heather and Bill’s scoreline was by far the eye-catcher with a win of 20 shots to 4 against an experienced opposition triple.  We are up to 6th in the table with games in hand. 

Match Report – Wendover Light Greens away 22nd February 

Sadly not a good result for us on our return to league action after the midwinter break as we failed to gain a point against Wendover Light Green as we lost 10-0.

Match Report – Bierton away 12th December

A first victory for us away from home and a very convincing one at 8-2.  Obviously everyone played well, just losing narrowly on one mat and winning overall with a tight 39-37.

Special mentions to those who played really well were our four leads Sandra, Keith, Jenny and Irene who set the tone so well on each end, putting the opposition under pressure on their own mats.

So we go into our mid season break exactly mid-table, not bad for our first go at short mat, playing against teams that have been at it for years. Well done everyone.

Match Report – Stewkley home 6th December

Sadly after last week’s magnificent result we lost against 2nd placed Stewkley on Tuesday evening, losing 2-8.  Colin, Les and Bill Giles did very well to win their game by a single shot, even after giving away 4 shots by twice pinging the jack off the mat – the first time we have witnessed that this season, so despite this hinderance it was a very well deserved win.  The other 3 games were frustratingly close and we only lost 26-33 overall so it was tense to the end.   

Match Report – Marsh Gibbon home 30th November

Back at home again this week playing Marsh Gibbon who before tonight were in 4th place.  Despite their current standing we did brilliantly to win the match 8-2, winning on 3 mats each with close scores and winning narrowly overall by 32- 30 shots.  Too many names involved to mention on the winning mats, but suffice to say everyone played well.  Across our 6 games so far, 19 different club members have played, enabling us to achieve our aim of giving games to everyone who wants to play in competitive matches.

Match Report – Wendover Dark Greens away 23rd November

This week we were playing only our 2nd away game, this time at Wendover against their Dark Greens.  On this occasion we won on 2 mats and tied on a 3rd, thus accumulating 5 points.  Unfortunately these wins and the tied game was insufficient to win the match overall on shots which ended up at 39 – 29 in Wendover’s favour.  So the final result was 5-5.  The winning triples were Irene, Deirdre and Bill H in the first half and Jenny, Norman and Ian after the break.  Having played one or in some cases two matches less than the others due to Covid outbreaks we are now in 8th place.

Match Report – Chinnor home 1st November

After a stand down week we were back in action, again at home and this time against top of the table and perennial league champions Chinnor, so it is fantastic to report that we took 4 points off them, losing only 6-4.  This means we won 2 of the 4 games played and only conceded the remaining 2 points on offer on overall shots.  Winning triples were Sandra, Terri and Chris in the first half and Irene, Heather and Bill after the break.  We remain at 6th in the league table.

Match Report – Wendover Light Green home 18th October

We were so close to coming out on top but overall lost by one shot 36-37 so the final score was 4-6 against.  We did so well to win on 2 mats, one in the first half courtesy of Terri, Deirdre and Chris 14-3 and in the 2nd half with Irene, Heather and Bill H 12-8, but losses in the other 2 games outweighed those positive scores by that 1 elusive shot.  Never mind, everyone seemed to enjoyed themselves and that’s what counts.  Thame currently stands 6th in the league.

Match Report – Bierton home 11th October

It was good to play on our own mats and the advantage showed because we won 6-4.  In the first half of the match we lost both triples but won both in the second.  We got 36 shots overall against their 30, so that gained us the additional 2 points to win 6-4.  Three of the games were very close scoring but Irene, Heather and Bill Heritage’s 17-7 win in their triple made sure we got the extra 2 points on shots total.  It was interesting to watch how some of the opposition players (thankfully not all) quickly got the measure of our mats, but home advantage paid off in the end.

Match Report – Stewkley away 4th October

We played our first ever game in the VSMBFL on 4th October away at Stewkley near Leighton Buzzard.  Sadly we didn’t win, losing overall 8-2, the 2 points earned by our triple Tom, Roger and Chris.  On the same mat in the 2nd half Terri, Deirdre and Bill Heritage were level going into the last end before being pipped at the post.  On the other mat we were well beaten in the other 2 matches.  The match scoring is 2 points for a win for each of 4 triples and a further 2 points for most shots overall, hence we lost 8-2.  It has to be said the mats at Stewkley were very different to ours, being very fast, swinging and very challenging, but we did very well first time out on an unfamiliar surface.