Author Archive | Roger Nichols

Well, I think I need to start with a story that proves that our game of Aunt Sally is a compassionate, environmentally aware, and respecter of our wild life! For the past 2 weeks the Royal Oak team at Didcot have selflessly given up their home advantage to their opponents because their throw has been occupied by a brood of young Robin chicks so rather than disturb the chicks they have reversed their fixtures. We may need a special award at the end of the season to recognise the Royal Oak Robins!

Some good news also about the legendary Barrington Parker, he is now out of hospital and although likely to be unable to wield his sticks for some time he was present at last week’s fixture between Abingdon United and Steventon Sports which Stevie managed a 4-2  win despite the unstoppable Dave Dix once again rattling off 14 dolls again for United, top scorer for Steventon Sports was Colin Brind with 11 dolls.

Elsewhere in the Premier Plum Pudding had Paul Longford leading the charge with 13 dolls in a 4-2 victory over the POW Shippon veterans and he was ably backed up by Ken Fisher with 11 and Terry Downes with 10 apiece. For the POW Jumbo Mott hit 13 dolls and Steve Martin 10.

Despite Alan Bell hitting 13 dolls for Croft Nomads The Vine were convincing 6-0 winners with Matt Dingle and Danny Hamilton scoring 11 and 12 in the Vine’s first “clean sweep” of their season to date.

Lots of good scoring both individually and teams in some of the other sections too. Anthony Humphries of the Boundary House in Section C and Gareth Thomas of Berinsfield B in Section D both hit magic 6’s in their games and there are not usually many 6’s struck in the lower sections and that is a tremendous achievement and I hope their team mates bought them a celebratory beer in recognition! Also worthy of note were double figure scores for Mick Christopher, Steve Weeks and Jason Black, for Jason that’s  double figures twice in his last 3 games for Red Lion C.

Finally and worthy of a very special mention is Andrew Shipman playing for Harwellian B in Section D he showed that anything Dave Dix can do he can at least equal because like Dave at Steventon, Andrew rattled 14 dolls off against Hanney RBL. That’s some achievement!

Good luck this week  to you all.

Enjoy, have some fun,  share some banter and try to remember nobody is trying whether it be you, a teammate or an opponent nobody throws to miss! It’s just that some of us can’t help it!!

Well here we are Midsummer, a third of our way through our season and savouring al last some warm evenings and some high scoring across all sections. Clearly  some of us like warm, dry Wednesday evenings because double figure scores were recorded by 17 players last week and that included players in almost every section.

Pride of place though for last week must go to two players from the Red Lion Drayton.    Jason Black playing for the C side hit a remarkable 15 dolls equalling I think the highest individual score anywhere in the league so far his season. Not to be outdone Caroline Baker playing for the Red Lion B included a very memorable 6 in her sides game against Sutton Courtenay FC. Is there something in the beer there? Caroline was ably supported by teammate Tim Wilde who contributed 11 dolls for the Red Lion.

Elsewhere 6’s were scored by Phil Adams and Scott Humphries with Phil scoring a total of 13 dolls and Scott 12 against Steventon Sports A and Croft Nomads in games that ended 6-0 and 3-3 respectively.

The 8’s draw has been made and 2 preliminary ties are due to be played in the next few days and results will be posted on the website when received, the second round (quarter finals) will be played next month. The full draw will be on the website in the next day or so.

Competition entry forms for 2022 will also be on the website shortly and the entry date has been extended until July 10th with all Competitions (other than the 8’s scheduled to take  place on Sunday August 21st.

We know there are mixed feelings about playing on a Sunday, but equally there has always been mixed feelings and responses to holding Competitions on Thursday’s meaning players playing potentially 2 nights a week for 6 successive weeks. We are trying to do differently this year and reducing the number of venues and hopefully the disappointing number of “no shows” that we were experiencing when playing all Competitions on Thursday’s. I guess the old adage if you don’t try you don’t know!

Good luck to everyone team and individually tomorrow and whatever the team result or your individual performance, just enjoy the fact that there will be over 350 of us out there playing and doing our best tomorrow on what promises to be a warm Summer evening!

What could be better?

Well , tonight we play our week 6 fixtures which means we are already a third of the way through our league season! Don’t want to depress everybody, but after next week’s fixtures the nights will start to shorten and we are still waiting for our first really warm and dry evening of this Summer, but tonight promises to change that!

First some news about the Aunt Sally legend that is Barry Parker. Barry has barely missed a game since he first started playing and has dominated both the team and individual game since he first started playing many, many years ago. Barry unfortunately was forced  missed last week’s game for Abingdon United as he was hospitalised and is likely apparently to miss more games over the coming weeks. I am sure we send all of our best wishes to Barry and hope he has a swift and full recovery and is able to play again soon.

Last week was the first week of the season when no-one hit the magic 6 dolls, but nonetheless there was still some big scoring and, not surprisingly Dave Dix once again topped the individual scoring with another 14 dolls against the College Oak. Dave’s average is now running at 4.83 dolls per leg, some of us would be happy to score that many in 3 legs!

Other individual scores to note were recorded By Tosh Wooloff and Alan Bell who both hit 11 for their sides in the 3-3 draw between Plum Pudding and Croft Nomads in the Premier section. Alan was ably assisted by Steve Enock and Ian Brook who both registered 10 dolls for Croft. 

Steve Lambert also hit a notable 10 dolls for the Fox Denchworth A against SIVFC in their “local derby”.

A special mention for Prince of Wales Veterans who recorded their first win of the season

So far 4 teams out of the 48 playing remain unbeaten in Section B Fleur de Leys, in C section  Red Lion C, in D section Harwellian B and in the E section Brewery Tap B all the rest of us appear to have lost at least once after 5 outings so it does look, at this early stage as if all of the sections are going to be closely contested and that’s got to be good for the game, especially this year after our enforced 2 year absence.

At the other end of the spectrum tonight’s game IN c SECTION between the Feathers Flyers and North Star A provides both teams with the opportunity to record their first win of the season.

On the Competition front our first competition of the season will soon be underway. 10 teams have entered and the draw has been made and will be published on the website after the teams have been notified.

Preliminary ties will be played on a mutually agreed (between the Captains) date by the end of June, with the 1st Round being played in July with the Semi Finals in August again all on mutually agreed days and dates.

The Committee has agreed this suggested more flexible approach this year rather than stating games have to be played on a fixed day and date.

Good luck to everyone tonight, enjoy your evening and remember whilst we all try our best, sometimes on the night we don’t always manage our best, but the game is about more than the number of dolls as individuals we score (or in my case don’t!) or whether our team win or lose it is all about the banter, the enjoyment and also the revenue we provide to our pubs and clubs on a Wednesday evening.

And so to Week 4 results round up……………

Well it the run up to the Jubilee and the extended holiday at least the weather was both drier and warmer last Wednesday and that led to some higher individual and team scoring in every section.

Topping the scoring charts were Paul Longford of the Plum Pudding and Alex Chamberlain late of Berinsfield, but this season playing for Abingdon United. Alex also laid claim to be the first player to hit two maximums in his 3 legs. Both Plum Pudding and Abingdon United benefited from Barry Townsend and Scott Humphries chipping in with a mere 13 for their high scoring side Plum claiming all three legs in a 6-0 win over College Oak for whom Phil Soden top scored with 13 dolls and Abingdon United drawing 3 -3 with Berinsfield A for whom Stuart Wilson with 10 dolls.

There were many double digit scores 18 in total, the best of the season so far and most notably 6 of these were achieved outside of the Premier /A sections. Also worthy of mention is Graham Brown’s first 6 of the season for the Prince of Wales Veterans against Croft Nomads for whom Titch Bell top scored with his 12 dolls, his best of the season so far

After 4 weeks of the season it’s good to be playing again and getting back into the habit on a Wednesday evening and although very early days the sections are beginning to take shape and already there is only 1 team out of 48 who have still to concede a leg.

I wanted to mention the newcomers and returners top the league this season we have  The Prince of Wales, Shippon,  Steventon Sports B, The Fox at Boars Hill, Hanney RBL, Brewery Tap and the Queens Arms Didcot all “new” 9r returning pubs and clubs who weren’t entered in 2019 so although we are down in numbers we do actually have some new teams…….. and, more importantly, an awful  lot of players who are new to the game and that’s great………….the challenge will be in keeping them so lots of encouragement needed from their teammates and opponents. Let’s all  remember that part of the attraction of our game is the good natured banter that we all enjoy!

On that note though a word of warning we do  represent our clubs and pubs so banter is good, bad language and abuse is not!

Unfortunately after 2 full weeks of all fixtures being fulfilled last week we lost a couple of games because of player shortages. 

So just a reminder you can still register players for your side simply through  registering their names via team support and they will be added to your team ahead of your next game.

Good luck to all for tomorrow’s fixtures.

If  anyone is still having difficulties accessing the website to submit match scores please bear with us, we know it’s frustrating and we are fixing individual problems, but if can’t get in if you send a photo of the card to me or via team support we will make sure it get’s posted! 

Well, at least the weather was better last Wednesday, but still a long way short of being an early balmy Summer’s evening! The improvement in the weather was reflected in some much better scoring for some teams and individuals

Leading the way again in terms of individual dolls who hit another 14, that sets him way in front in terms of dolls with a leg average of 4.6 from the first 3 matches! he was joined in double digit scores by 4 of his team mates with Scott Humphries and Leigh Clapton contributing with 11 apiece and Barry Parker and  Alex Chamberlain chipping in with 10 each. Condolences to Red Lion meeting Abingdon United in such form!

Elsewhere in the Premier and A section there were double digit scores with Barry Townsend hitting 12 for the Plum Pudding, Mick Jarvis 11 for Steventon Sports, “Jumbo” Mott 11 for the Prince of Wales and Geoff Lee 10 for Berinsfield. 

What was also good to see is double digit scores in the B section  with Andrew Wood hitting 10 for the Fox Denchworth, Andy Shipman also hitting 10 in Section D for the Harwellian and in Section E, 2 players also hit a very credible 10 dolls each, Steve Fernback for the Fox, Boars Hill and Mel Benfield for the Brewery Tap A both teams newcomers/returners to the league this season.

The closing date for all Competitions has been extended until the end of June with the exception of the team 8’s the closing date for this will be this coming Monday June 6th. If you haven’t entered or confirmed your entry then please do so in the next few days. Handicaps for the 8’s are, as in most recent years, a plus handicap of 2 per section so, for example, a Premier sides playing a side in Section B will give 4 dolls, a side from Section B playing a side in Section C will concede a 2 doll handicap etc.

For the 8’s it is likely that the opening round will be held on either June 16th or 23rd with the second round held in July.

As a result of both lack o committee resources and the number of “no shows” in previous years the rest of the Competitions will take place on Sunday August 21st with an early afternoon start. This will be the 5;s, the 4’s and the 3’s as team events together with the pairs, singles Captains and Secretaries competitions. Entry is open to all registered players of all clubs and teams. We are hoping the bar will be open and we will be able to arrange for some catering on the day as for some it may  be a long afternoon!

Entries for all of these Competitions must be made by the end of June together with registration fees paid. The entry fees are £1 per person with no charge for nominated reserves So a team entering the 5’s will cost £5, the pairs £2 etc.

All entries to either Roger Nichols or via the  Team Support link on the website