Author Archive | Roger Nichols

The closing date for the Summer Competitions is June 15th so it is time to get your entries in. Entry forms are available to download on the website for all Competitions so get your entries in early, you don’t have to wait until the closing date!!

Just a reminder that all registered players are eligible to play in all of the Competitions other than the two new Pairs competitions which are exclusive to players from Sections B and C (Competition 1) and Competition is only to registered players in sections D,E and F. Both of these Competitions not only offer the chance of a trophy, but for the winners and runners up in  both an attractive cash prize to share!!

Each of the Competitions require a minimum of 8 entries and the entrance fee for  the two new pairs Comps mentioned above  will be free to enter, all other Competitions require a nominal entry fee of £1 per player.

Venues, dates and times are all on the website so \ don’t be shy get your entries in! l

Lets make our Competitions this year be what they have been for over 60 years competitive, fun and the opportunity for  all teams and individuals the opportunity to pit their skills against each other in the several competitions all of which culminate in a grand end of season finals night in September with trophies galore on offer!!

This week is a good opportunity to look at what has been happening in each of the sections, which teams are setting the pace after just 3 games, to see how are the new teams settling in with their results  and to recognise some of the week 3 individual and collective top scores.

I will start with the F section where newcomers Long Wittenham AC are setting the pace with 3 straight wins and 15 points already secured. North Star B are chasing hard also with 3 wins and 14 points in the bag. In the E section it is Hanney RBL and The Bystander leading the way both with 3 wins from 3 so their meeting could be interesting1

The D section is led by The Plough , West Hanney and they have secured 14 points from the 18 on offer after 3 weeks so another of our 3 Hanney based sides is going well. Down the road in Denchworth The Fox,  are the highest points “gatherers” in any of the sections to date with 17 points from their 3 straight wins, but The Wheatsheaf at Didcot are chasing them hard with 16 points from their 3 winning matches.

The B section sees 2 unbeaten sides and remarkably WADS Bar who in 2024 were in the F section are currently sharing top spot with The Royal Oak, Didcot both of whom have 3 wins from 3.

The Premier has no team with 3 wins, but Croft Nomads are leading the way with 13 points and  are still unbeaten , but this week they face a trip to Drayton to face the A section early leaders and also unbeaten Red Lion A

Well it’s only 3 weeks into the season so as they say the only league tables that really matter are the ones that will be there in early September and  that’s still 15 weeks away!

As far as the  new entrants this year all have made encouraging starts and have points on the board in their respective sections and we hope they are enjoying their season so far.

I said I would look at last weeks individual performances and and remarkably the only 2 “sixers ” last week were both recorded in the E section with Richard Bunce hitting one for the Black Horse Hanney and Jon Mole hitting one for the Waggon & Horses Southmoor. There were 17 individual legs of 5 dolls over the sections so an awful lot of throwers missed that elusive 6 by just one doll!

Overall individual top scorer last week was Alex Chamberlain with 13 dolls for Abingdon Conservative Club and Ian McGregor  (Black Horse Hanney), Barry Townsend  (Croft Nomads), Danny Hamilton (The Vine), Matty Belcher (College Oak A), Paul Barrett (Ab Con Club) and Steve Martin (Ab Utd A) all hit 11 dolls and Jason Bowler (Ab Utd A) and Andy Burton (Wheatsheaf ) both landed double figures with 10 apiece.

We did have one disappointment last week with the first walkover of the season conceded because of a shortage of players by one of the sides. Just remember it is  too late to register additional players if you need to. It’s always better to have too many players than not enough and even if individuals don’t want to play every week having “occasionals” available to cover holidays, sickness etc  by having them registered means you can call upon them if needed

And so to this week when hopefully the evening will be a little kinder with the wind, rain and cold giving way to a more temperate early Summer evening!

Roger will be on holiday from Friday 16th May until Saturday 24th May. I know that may be of little interest to you all, but if you do need to register additional players, de-register,  submit scores, enter competitions etc he won’t be around to acknowledge, So in the first instance please contact the other Committee members by using the Team Support option which you will find as a sub header if you click on Scores and Results on the website. Please ensure that you identify not only yourself, but also the team and section you are acting on behalf of.

Someone from the Committee (likely Paul) will respond and if necessary action any necessary urgent requests.

Well, the first week of the season was greeted with a dry, but cold Wednesday evening and lots of interesting results across the 6 sections. What I will try to do is cover all of the sections this season individually, but for this, the first week of the league I will try to cover notably results, team and individual performances across all! Forgive me if I don’t highlight your team., your result or mention a particular member of your team, but there are 60 teams and that’s 480 players taking part each week so a few too many to cover all!!

Let me start with the Premier and A section where the defending Champions from 2024 Bystander A, now playing at and as Abingdon United A fell to a surprising 5-1 defeat at the hands of The Red Lion A despite the very best effort of skipper Steve Martin who top scored for United with 11 dolls. For the Lion Dean Bowler top scores with 8 dolls, but he was well supported by a solid all round team performance and the benefit of a handicap advantage of 3 dolls saw the Lion draw the first leg 18 apiece, but then take the next 2 legs 26-17 and 23-13.

Elsewhere in this section Abingdon Con Club (formerly Ab Utd@Con Club) got off to a winning start with a 4-2 victory over The Vine. Dave Dix hit the highest individual score of the night 14 dolls and Danny Hamilton claimed the first 6 of the season in his 12 dolls for The Vine. Dave was well supported by both Alex Chamberlain and Phil Adams who both hit double figures for the visitors and The Vines John Pownceby also scored 12 dolls. 

There were also winning starts for Croft Nomads who entertained The Plum Pudding, for College Oak A against Stanford in the Vale FC and for Steventon Sports SC A who travelled to Berinsfield SC A. All of these were 4-2 wins. Leading scorers for the Croft was Steve Enock with 12 dolls, Terry Downes with 11 for the Plum. Jamie Knight followed his first leg “blob” with a second leg 6 for the Oak, the only other 6 of the night across all sections! Robert Glen top scored for the FC with 8 dolls.

In the B section there was a battle between two sides of particular interest to Andrew Fudge when the Earl of Abingdon a new venue for 2025 entertained The WADS bar who were playing in this section after winning the F section in 2024. It is fair to say that many of last year’s WADs side were more than a bit worried about their meteoric rise to the B section, but that didn’t seem to be a problem as they turned their first fixture into a resounding 6-0 win led by the Brown boys, Derrick with 10 dolls and Gareth with 9! For the Earl Mick Brown was the best performer with 7 dolls, but his 7 team mates could only manage 24 dolls between them over 3 legs! 

Elsewhere in the B section The Fleur de Leys A were worthy winners beating Abingdon RBL 6-0 who collectively seemed to have an unusually bad night. Ian Heapy led the charge for the Fleur with 11 dolls.

Other results in this section saw wins for the Royal Oak, Abingdon United C and the Croft Bar.

The C section produced a couple of 6-0 results for the Bell Grove B whose captain Jason Lowe was the major contributor with 11 dolls against the Eight Bells and The Fox at Denchworth also were 6-0 victors over the North Star A. Brewery Tap, The Wheatsheaf and the Midget were all also  first week winners in this section.

In the D section there were winning starts for College Oak B, the Prince of Wales, Harwellian A, The Plough, West Hanney and Steventon Sports SC B. 

The E section brought an opening clash between 2 new sides to the league for this season  when The Crown A entertained the George from Sutton Courtenay and they shared the points in a 3-3 draw.

There were, in this section, some good individual performances and despite a 5-1 loss Brian Bosley and Tom Ricketts both playing for Marcham Centre hit 9 and 8 dolls respectively against The Bystamnder but Bystanders  skipper John Mackay with 10 dolls led Bystander to the victory. Elsewhere in the E section John Thomas and Spencer Walton both contributed 7 dolls but Gareth Thomas topped that with 9 dolls as Berinsfield B defeated The Black Horse 6-0. 

The F section saw newbies Long Wittenham Athletic Club ( with a couple of former Plough Long Wittenham  making the short move down the road0 got off to a flying start with maximum points victory over the Plough Appleton and Grove RFC matched that defeating the Lamb B.9 Obviously both the Sports teams had taken their pre season training a bit more seriously than the pubs!)

Not surprisingly so0 early in the season and with lots of teams featuring players who are new to our game there were a fair share of “blobbers”, but we are sure that tthose who failed to record a score in week 1 will soon be celebrating their first doll and going on to score many more over the season so don’t despair we have all been there!

It was noticeable that one ore two teams in the lower sections struggled to turn out full sides so don’t forget you can all add players to your teams to make certain you have enough players each week to cover those on holiday, working away or just unavailable all you need is to do is add their names your teams and they will be eligible to play straight away, but no transfers are allowed during the season if players have  already played for 1 side .

Looking forward to week 2 and the promise of a warm Wednesday!

Welcome to the Abingdon & District Aunt Sally League Summer season! Tonight sees 30 matches taking place across the region with hopefully 60 teams and 480 players old and new on the oche from 8.15 at 30 venues.

We are delighted that a very late additional team were registered late last week to bring our 6 sections all to 10 teams apiece so no byes necessary over the next 18 weeks. The Horse & Jockey at Stanford in the vale were those late entrants after fears over the future of the pub were resolved only in the last couple of weeks. Your Committee had strived to achieve a total of 60 sides so we, together with all of the other teams in the F section who have warmly welcomed back this season.

We are pleased to welcome some new teams to our league and also welcome back some who have missed a season or two and of course we are delighted that our stalwarts who have been with us for many years and have maintained the league through some tough times are all still with us. We especially welcome everyone who is playing Aunt Sally competitively for the first time. Remember it’s not always about the result it’s the taking part that counts and our game can be competitive, it is often frustrating, it can divide opinion, but most of all it is both enjoyable and fun and always played in a good spirit and with lots of banter.

The other thing that stands Aunt Sally apart from other sports is that there are no referees, no automatic technology interventions, no VAR, no appeals or reviews! Every decision is made by humans and always by people who play the game!

So like in any other sport there may  be a few errors over a season, but rest assured any of these these will have been made in good faith and like in other sports mistakes and errors often level themselves up over the course of the season!

Enjoy your evening and may the weather on Wednesday’s be good to us throughout the Summer! That would be a first!

The season starts in earnest next week, but while the sun is shining many teams have been preparing for their season with practice sessions and many friendlies. The enthusiasm seems to be high this year and although we fell just short of our target of 60 teams entered (we actually have 59, a 4 team improvement from 2024) a host of new and some returning teams are most welcome. We hope they all enjoy the next 4+ months of competitive, friendly Aunt Sally and we especially welcome all those players who are looking to play our sport for the very first time!

All the fixture packs etc have now been distributed and left either at venues, or with secretaries or team captains. Many of you have already checked your team lists for name and spelling accuracy so thank you for that, especially those of you who have spotted our not deliberate mistakes!

Tonight our first competition gets underway with the opening round of the Skol Trophy 8’s which this year has attracted 13 entries. All of the remaining competitions take place during the summer months and the closing date for entries is only 6 weeks away and this includes for the 2 new pairs competitions where entries are restricted to team members from Sections B and C or Sections D, E  and F. Competitions are an essential part of our season and we really want as many entries for all of these. Most Competitions have already scheduled dates and venues, details of which are already published on the fixture lists.

Don’t forget you can continue to register additional players throughout the season subject to Committee approval which will, in most cases, be immediate unless the “new” player has significant previous “form” which would either affect the handicap (Section Premier/A) or create a significant inbalance in one of the other sections.

Looking forward to the next 18 weeks and as always enjoy, be good hosts and/or visitors, be grateful to our pubs and clubs who look after us and enable our sport to maintain it’s long tradition of representing Abingdon & District Aunt Sally!

Registration Night at Abingdon Conservative Club – Monday 17th March from 7.30pm

Just a reminder that Registration Night for both the Summer League and Team 8’s Competition will take place next Monday.

Registration fee per team is £45 (up to 15 registered players) and the registration forms should be completed and available on Monday for registration. All teams are advised to keep a copy of the forms for their own records (no photocopying facilities will be available at the venue). If more than 15 players are registered the additional cost is £1 per player.

All registered players will be eligible to play in the 8’s handicap knockout competition for which the entry fee is £8 and as the Competition gets underway before the league season entries need to made and paid for next Monday. The first round of this competition will be scheduled for Wednesday 30th April.

Unfortunately, we cannot process digital payments, so fees need to be paid in cash or by cheque on the night. Cheques should be made payable to Abingdon & District Aunt Sally League. Receipts will be given if required.

On Monday it will also be possible to order equipment including sticks, dolls, swivels and irons which will then be collected and delivered before the start of the season.  Payment, cash or cheque, will need to be made, ideally upon ordering or alternatively on delivery.

KIT PRICES

• Sticks are £55 a set,
• dolls are £15 each,
• irons are £25 each and
• swivels are £15 each.

Arrangements for all other team and individual Competitions entries, complete with entry forms and dates will be included in the team Captains/Secretaries Summer 2025 packs which will be compiled and distributed once the league formations are sorted. The forms will also be available on the website, together with closing dates for entry, fees (where appropriate), dates, times and venues for all competitions.

It is expected that these packs, which will include section formations, fixture lists and match cards will be available and distributed mid April.

The League season will start on Wednesday 7th May.

It is confirmed that Barry’s wake following his funeral on the 28th February will be held at The Earl of Abingdon bar on the corner of Ock Street and Stratton Way Abingdon.

Barry’s funeral will take place on Friday 28th February at 12noon.

The service will be at St Michael & All Angels Church, Park Road,  Abingdon and will be followed by a burial at Spring Road Cemetery, Abingdon.

We are sure that there will many attendees not just from the Aunt Sally Community, but also from Barry’s many friends, and from his golfing and cricketing colleagues, two sports which Barry also demonstrated considerable proficiency and enjoyed much success during his life.

We are sure that Barry will, after much suffering, bravely borne, over a long period, appreciate, as will his family and friends, an appropriate send off in recognition of  both his very life taken tragically too soon and his demonstrably long and successful sporting career.

It is with some real sorrow that we share the news that Barrington known to most, as Barry, sadly lost his long and brave fight against illness and passed away yesterday. Our sincere condolences to Barry’s family and to his many, many friends across the Aunt Sally, Golfing and Cricketing communities.

Barry was a true legend amongst the Aunt Sally community, not just our own Association, but wherever Aunt Sally is played.  His name was known and his superb talent was recognised by so many who have played the game over the many years that Barry represented our game, as one of  the very best Aunt Sally  players to have ever graced the oche! As a solid anchorman he earned the nickname ‘Iceman’ because of his coolness under pressure.

And I mean no disrespect to all of the great players past and present when I suggest that Barry ranks that highly amongst his peers.

Barry Parker 2016 World Aunt Sally Champion

Barry won probably every individual, pairs and team trophies that has ever been played several times and though much of his Aunt Sally career was spent playing for Abingdon United (where he has the shed named after him!) he also helped,  and led several other teams and individuals to titles in both our league and in our Competitions. Barry, of course, most fittingly won the World Championship in 2016 after finishing Runner up in 2014.

Barry’s sporting prowess was not limited just to Aunt Sally, he had many sporting loves. Barry was a long term member of Frilford Golf Club where, not surprisingly, he claimed many trophies and was one of the founder members of the CBF Golf Society. Barry was also a very talented cricketer playing at County  level with Cowley St John, locally with B H Polley’s x1, not forgetting his “one off” appearance for one of the Caribbean Islands. His footballing career was not quite so successful as his Aunt Sally, Golf or Cricket, but he did feature for Osberton Radiators for several seasons in the Oxford Senior League.

We will, in due course, share,  on this site, details of Barry’s funeral arrangements so that we can all take the opportunity, if we can, to show our respect and say an appropriate goodbye to Barry.

We will, I am sure, in conjunction with his team mates past and present  also hold an appropriate competition as a long term memorial serving not only in Barry’s memory, but also revering his Aunt Sally achievements.