Author Archive | Roger Nichols

Well, we had another fine July Wednesday last week, but the weather unusually didn’t encourage too much in the way of high scoring although there were many players in most sections recording double figures, many of whom, were reaching that goal for the first time this season. For example in the match between Croft Nomads and Plum Pudding in the Premier both Paul Stone for the Croftand John Ellaway for Plum Pudding  hit 10 dolls each to top their teams individual scores. Croft managed a 6-0 victory, but it has to be said that Plum Pudding were missing both Barry Townsend and Paul Longford on the night.

Top scorers on the night were Pete Beacham for Steventon Sports in their 6-0 win over Berinsfield with 11 dolls and both skipper Mick Jarvis and the reliable Colin Brind both contributed 10 dolls apiece.

For Berinsfield Geoff Lee also hit 11 dolls. This win for Steventon Sports narrowed the gap between the top 2 sides in the Premier to just 2 points.

The Hart Harwell’s away fixture against the Red Lion in section A was played at the Wheatsheaf due to the temporary closure of their home up the High Street and The Hart managed a 4-2 win with Simon Winterbourne and Roger Lee both topping the  scoring with 11 dolls and Paul Leach also hitting 10 dolls. For the Lion the ever reliable Dean Bowler hit 10. For at least one visiting  player the most remarkable part of the evening was not his double digit score, but the food provided by the Wheatsheaf! No Names mentioned Leachy!!

Elsewhere in the Premier/A section there were wins for Premier section leaders Abingdon Utd/Con Club 4-2 at Stanford in the Vale FC Vine. Barry Parker top scored with 11 dolls for the league leaders who were without Dave Dix on the night.

In the A section Bystander recent form saw them overcome The Vine 4-2 with Danny Hamilton leading individual scorer on the night with 10 dolls.

Other notable individual scores on the night included 11’s from Andy Shipman for Harwellian B who defeated Abingdon Arms A 6-0 in the B section, Dave Sapey with 10 dolls for Abingdon RBL, Brian Hudson with 11 dolls for Croft Bar B helping them to a 6-0 victory away to RAL which took Croft to the top of Section D. Also in the D section Dennis Ruffels hit 10 dolls for The Grapes as they beat the Bystander B 4-2 and in the E section Mark Newman hit a cracking 10 dolls as they also recorded a 4-2 win over North Star A.

The league table in most sections shows there is still a lot to play for. In the Premier as I said earlier, only 2 points separate league leaders Abingdon Utd/Con Club from second placed Steventon Sports A and they  meet this week at the Con Club, in the A section Stanford IN the Vale FC and Bystander share 40 points apiece and still have to play each other in the penultimate game of the season, College Oak A are clear favourites to win the B section, but who knows?, Grapes B look as it’s theirs to lose in Section C with a healthy points lead, but there’s still games to play.

In the D section, there is  some real  local rivalry in Peachcroft with leaders Croft B and second placed College Oak B separated by only 2 points the, both have a week with a bye in their last fixtures and will meet next week when College Oak may be the new leaders as the Croft’s bye is this week.

Finally, the E section is wide open with 3 teams in close contention. The Midget despite being in second place, may be slight favourites as they still have 3 games to play whilst current league leaders Harwellian A only have 2 to play! F section is possibly sorted with Abingdon Arms B favourites although they only have 2 games remaining.

That’s about it for a summary of last week’s games etc. next week we will update top scorers and averages and give a few details of the programme for Finals Night which is now only 4 weeks away and which will bring the curtain down on our outdoor Summer season 2023!

So soon and Tosh has already given us evidence of that by issuing his fixture list and timetable for the 2023/4 Winter league!!!

Well here we are week 14 already only 5 weeks left of the Summer 2023  league season! Unbelievable that we are already into the second week of August!

Before I start last week’s league round up just a few important things to note. Firstly The Red Lion, Drayton  closed last week leaving both their Aunt Sally teams, at least temporarily, homeless!

The A side have been able to  take immediate steps to play their remaining home fixtures just down the road at The Wheatsheaf starting with tonight’s game against The Hart , Harwell. Scheduled games against both The Bystander and The Vine will also take place at the Wheatsheaf. Fortunately the Wheatsheaf team have no scheduled home games so the arrangement works perfectly.

The Red Lion B side have 2 remaining home matches and hopefully these can be re-arranged at a convenient and available alternative venue or maybe played as away matches. We will liaise with their secretary to see how we can help them to complete their scheduled home fixtures on the 16th and 30th August.

Thanks again to all who entered and supported the Competitions last Sunday and the earlier Competitions held in June. Both days were successful and we are now down to the finalists in all of the Competitions with the exception of the 8’s where I think, the semi final between The Bell Grove and Abingdon Con Club is still outstanding. The winners of that tie will meet Abingdon Utd/Con Club in the final on Wednesday 13th September at Abingdon United.

We know that holding Competitions on Sunday is not universally popular, but the Committee made  those who attended the AGM aware of our plans and the decision was voted upon at the AGM back in the Spring. What was good to see is that our President John Simmons together with one of his former team mates John Gapper  took time out to come along  and watch for much of the afternoon and share some banter with many of those playing. Thanks to everyone for their support and participation on the day.

Before next year’s AGM we will once again look at the future of all of our Competitions, the options  and how best to organise them so we try to ensure maximum participation and more importantly, to find out how we attract as many entries from all sections rather than just from the Premier and A section. We want all the Competitions  to be more inclusive, but we also need them to be manageable to administer! We will ask all clubs and teams for their views and put the responses to the AGM early in 2024.

Well back to last weeks highlights and lowlights! 

Firstly, congratulations to the Plum Pudding who (without the assistance of any handicap) hit 30 dolls in the 3rd leg against Steventon Sports A, who themselves recorded 30 dolls in the second leg of that match. Stevie did have the advantage of a 4 plus handicap in their 30! Plum’s total of 30 was even more remarkable in that it included a blob! 

Leg scores were Plum 26,25 and 30, Stevie 27 30 19 so despite Plum having 6 players hitting double figures they still lost 4-2. Individual highlights were Phil Adams including a 6 in his total of 14, Dave Butler scoring 12 , Tosh Wooloff and Barry Townsend  11 apiece and Terry Downes 10.

For Steventon Colin Brind also included a 6 in registering 12 dolls, but he was outscored by Derek (Rod) Fletcher who top scored with 13 dolls for the visitors. I might be mistaken, but I think that game featured the highest number of dolls scored in any game this season so far, so it is worthy of a special mention!

Premier section leaders Abingdon Utd/Con Club like second placed Steventon Sports were also victors 4-2 at home to the Bystander A and Dave Dix was another “sixer” he hit 14 dolls and with Darren Holmes hitting 13 and Scott Humphries 10 to maintain their position as likely title favourites. For Bystander Duncan Taylor hit a season’s best with 12 dolls and Mickey Phillips also hit a season’s best score with 11 dolls.

Steve Enock also hit his best of the season and shared the top dolls score of the night with 14 dolls, well supported by Alan Bell with 10 dolls in Croft Nomads 6-0 home win against Red Lion A who not only are now homeless, but after 3 successive 6-0 victories earlier in the season that enabled them to lead section A  have now fallen to 5 successive defeats and to third place in the table.

Elsewhere  double digit scores were recorded by Roger Lee of The Hart Harwell, Stewart Towlerton and Darren Sargison of the Fleur de Leys and Abingdon United’s C  Captain and music maestro Matt Ashmall in Section B.

In section B College Oak A have gone 7 games unbeaten and now lead the section hotly pursued by  the Fleur de Leys. Another side on a good run is Bystander B in Section D who have recorded 4 successive wins.

It still is all very open in terms of who are going to be top dogs and runners up in each of the sections with very little , in terms of points separating several teams at the moment and with 5 games to play in the Premier/A section and 3 to play in the other sections there will, I am sure, be more changes at the top and bottom  before the end of the season.

Well that’s about it for another week other than to say it looks like the deluge of a couple of weeks ago seems to be behind us and we can look forward to a warm and dry evening tonight.

Mentioning the rain on July 26th I notice that there are a few results are outstanding from that week, together with a couple from last week so I will be chasing those in the next few days so that we can keep all of our individual and team tables up to date.

Firstly, I think we have sorted all of the confusion caused to some because I failed to update the week number and at least 9 teams had entered the match score before I realised! So a bit of rework was required and I think with Paul Stone’s help we have recovered all of the scores and they are in the right week! The good news is that this week, week 1,  has already  been reset so hopefully no problems for those who get their scores online so quickly!

The other good news is that I am on holiday for the next 2 weeks so I won’t be making any cocks up on the site at least until I am back! In the meantime if any team has any problems loading scores or need to register additional players to cope with holiday absences etc Paul Stone will be looking after things in my absence. Ideally any match cards should be emailed (photos) to team support and Paul should pick them up and will enter for you. Paul’s own e mail address is on the paulmjstone@gmail.com.

Shortly we will be featuring on this site some memories and photographs of a former singles winner who has been in contact with us from his home in Perth, Western Australia. Frank Sanders played in both the Oxford and Abingdon Leagues and emigrated to Australia many years ago, but I am sure some of you will remember him.

Well, back to last week’s results and highlights (in my case lowlights!). There was  lots of double digit scores recorded last week, probably the most in a single week so far this season. Leading the way were the Plum Pudding where Terry Downes recorded  the highest individual score of the night with 14 dolls, a very welcome return to form for Terry who was ably assisted by both Ken Fisher and Graham Brown, Ken hitting 12 dolls and Graham 10. As a result Plum beat the Vine whose Danny Hamilton also recorded double figures on the night.

Abingdon Utd/Con Club also had a trio of double digit scorers with Paul Barrett notching 11 dolls for the second successive week and both Dave Dix and Scott Humphries with their usual reliability both hitting 10. Despite this Berinsfield managed a 3-3 shared result on the night with skipper Stuart Wilson top scoring with 11 dolls for the home side. 

Elsewhere in the Premier /A section Dave Hudon top scored with 10 dolls for the Bystander A team and Neil Tame also hit 10 dolls for the league leaders his best of the season and despite going down 4-2 Steventon Sports still remain top of the Premier although the gap is now down to just 1 point!

Garry Gibbard, for many years a native of Steventon, was also amongst the dolls for Stanford in the Vale FC scoring 10 in the Football Club’s 5-1 victory over league leaders Red Lion A who were missing their highest scorer, Dean Bowler on the night. That result makes both teams level on 32 points a t the top of the A section.

Elsewhere there was some other good scoring with both Phil Soden and matty Belcher contributing 10 dolls apiece in College Oak A’s 67-0 victory over local rivals Abingdon United C in the B section. Also for College Oak B in the D section Jason Major was another double digit scorer in the game against RAL SC and Sam Higgs hit 11 for Bystander B who defeated Hanney RBL 6-0 in a match where every third throw of the 48 on the night was a blob! 

Just  another use(ful) or use(less) statistic from last week of the 23 matches played 34% were drawn, 30% resulted in a 4-2 scoreline, 17% ended 5-1 and 20% finished with 6-0! I know that adds up to 101%, but that’s ue to the rounding!

A final call for the Competitions taking place at Abingdon United on August 6th, yes it’s a Sunday! It’s not too late to enter, It’s the Singles, Pairs , Captains and Secretaries comps taking place and the start time will be 1.30pm with the draws taking place 30 minutes before each competition. Only those recorded as present at the time the draw takes place will be able to play. 

At the moment we have just over 30 entries for the singles, 18 pairs for the pairs and only a disappointing 6 entries for both the Captains and Secretaries. it should be a good day (and definitely  not as long as last year) so if you want to enter please let us know through the Team Support page on this site or by contacting any of the Committee direct. Entries will be open right up until Friday 4th August.

Competitions have always been an important part of our calendar and the more people who enter and participate the better the competition, and equally as important, the more significant it is for those who win the competition! 

The bar will be open all afternoon so bring along your family,  friends and  teammates for  both support and banter!!

Well, it seems only a few days since we were looking forward to a new season and yet here we are halfway through the season already! Where does the time go when you are enjoying yet another year of Abingdon and District Aunt Sally.

Week 9 should have been the first week of this season when we had a full fixture lists with all the teams numbers listed as byes in Sections through C to F were actually drawn against each other (team 2 v team7). Unfortunately the withdrawal of the Black Swan spoilt and Bystander C were the only side not playing last week as a consequence. 

Now to last week’s matches and top scorers. In the Premier Steventon Sports remain at the top of the table despite their first defeat of the season going down 4-2  when they visited bottom of the Premier Croft Nomads. In Stevie’s defence they were missing their leading doll scorer Colin Brind and his absence clearly upset them as in the first leg 4 of their 8 players act failed to trouble the doll!

Elsewhere in the Premier both Abingdon Utd/Con Club and the Plum Pudding  both recorded 6-0 victories against The Hart and Stanford FC respectively. The Bystander continued their recent good form and Jumbo Mott was the week’s leading doll scorer including the week’s only 6 doll maximum and hitting  14 cracking dolls at Berinsfield and he was  ably supported by Captain Steve Martin with Bystander winning 4-2.

Lots of double digit individual scores last week With Jumbo at the top of the tree with his 14, Barry Townsend and Dave Dix both hit 13 for Plum Pudding and Abingdon Utd/Con , Steve Enock hit 12 for the Croft and there were  11’s recorded by Phil Adams, Alan Bell, Paul Barrett in the Premier and Dean Bowler for the Red Lion in the A section and Paul Ealey for Abingdon RBL in the B section. Lot’s of 10’s as well last week including Dave Butler a welcome first double figures of the season, Geoff Lee. Paul Kelsey and Phil Soden for the College Oak A in the B section Richard Bunce and Ian McCregor for the Chequers, Charney and Steve Soden for the Grapes (matching his old man for bragging rights! Dave Heard for the Queens Arms Didcot and Karl Humphries for Abingdon Arms B also showed again that high scoring individuals don’t just belong in the higher section both contributing 10 dolls apiece for their sides.

I should also mention that Fox Denchworth who last week (8) recorded their first win of the season and probably against the local rivals  who they would most like to beat from up the road in Charney!! They followed that up with a share of the points against the Royal Oak.

A few interesting encounters tonight including the “battle of the Taps” in the E section as Brewery Tap A and B meet, College Oak A entertain Abingdon United C with both sides including a Worrell in their line ups and The Chequers have another West Berks derby when they travel to play the Bell at Grove.

Finally for this week we have a lot of discussions and sometimes debate about the handicap system, how fair it is, and why we need it. I think the reasons we need it are pretty obvious it’s to make the section’s as competitive as possible and also to give encouragement so that all games are competitive. It’s for broadly the same objective as the handicapping of racehorses based on previous form, golf uses handicaps and so does table tennis it’s a form of “levelling up”.

Out of interest and of no particular importance I have looked at the results in terms of average leg scores for the Premier/A and B sections after 9 games have been played and removed the handicap received by each of the teams in the Premier and A sections. The total dolls and  leg averages in rank order show the following:

1. Abingdon Utd/Con Club                                             566      20.96
2. Plum Pudding                                                                523       19.37
3. Steventon Sports A                                                       450      16.66      
4. Berinsfield A                                                                   449      16.63
5. Croft Nomads                                                                 443      16.40
6. Red Lion A                                                                      422      15.63
7. Bystander A                                                                     412      15.25
8. The Vine                                                                            400    14.81
9. Stanford FC                                                                       383    14.18
10. The Hart                                                                            380    14.07
11. College Oak A                                                                    373     13.81
12. Fleur de Leys                                                                     352     13.03
13. Abingdon United C                                                           330     12.22
14. The Plough                                                                          328     12.14
15. Abingdon RBL                                                                    312    11.55
16. Harwellian B                                                                        310     11.48
17. The Wheatsheaf                                                                   307     11.37     
18. Berinsfield B                                                                         300    11.11
19.  Abingdon Arms A                                                                259     9.58*
20. Eight Bells                                                                              252       9.33*                                                        

• Have only played 8 games, but total and average assume same doll count and leg average for the 9th game which was forfeited by both teams.

Using the actual leg average and the handicap added together means, shows that at this stage of the season  there is only 1.9 doll difference between the highest scoring team (no handicap) and the lowest scoring team (+5) in the Premier/A section. Without a handicap there would be a massive 7 doll difference and that would be neither competitive nor challenging for most sides in the Premier and A section. 

The comparison of scores for all teams based on actual results of the top 8 players is a much more useful way of determining the sections rather than straightforward promotion and relegation as is the norm in most sports.

My final word for this week is that the closing date for the final 4 competitions, Captains, Secretaries, Pairs and Singles is Monday 17th July. The Competitions will take place on Sunday August 6th at Abingdon United and the draw will be made on the day based on both entries and attendance.

Have  a good week

Don’t forget that the first of the competitions for teams of 3, teams of 4 and teams of 5 will take place this Sunday at Abingdon United.

The Competitions will start with the 3’s, followed by the 4’s and finally the 5’s. Play will commence at 2pm and each of the competitions will be played down to the final 2 teams with the 2 remaining teams of each Competition playing the final on Finals Night on September 13th.

There has been  a disappointing low number of teams entered this year with only 4 clubs represented, partly that is because many do not want to play on a Sunday and, I suspect largely because teams from outside the top sections are reluctant to enter competitions because there is no incentive for them to compete against the Premier/A section sides unlike in the 8’s competition which is handicapped. Spectators will be most welcome on Sunday and the Bar will be open!!!

We will need to rethink our Competition programme for 2024 and put any proposed changes either to format, dates etc to next year’s AGM. The Competitions represent our lowest income and our highest expenditure so the need for them to be attractive and encourage more participation needs careful consideration.

Draws for each of the Competitions on Sunday will be made 15 minutes prior to each of the Competition’s.

On a more positive note entries for the Pairs, Singles, Captains and Secretaries competition are much healthier and we have extended the closing date for entries until next month. These Competitions will take place again at Abingdon United, again on  a Sunday, August 6th. More details later in the season.

In the 8’s Competition 2 of the 4 quarter finals have already been completed with wins for Plum Pudding against the Bystander A and Abingdon United/Con Club overcame The Fox Denchworth 2 legs to 1 in their tie. The remaining games will take place in the next few days when Croft Nomads will entertain Abingdon Con Club and The Bell Grove will face Berinsfield SC A.

Well, at last I think we have sorted out all of the problems caused with the week 5 scores, several of which found there way into week 4 obliterating the correct week 4 scores that had already been correctly entered. All week 6 scores (with 1 exception) are now all entered so tonight it’s week 7 and the correct week number has already been  set and, more importantly I remembered to press the update button!

Well week 5 was a better scoring week for many with Phil Adams of the Plum Pudding leading the way with 14 dolls , ably assisted by Tosh Wooloff who contributed 11 dolls, their efforts were not enough to stop Croft Nomads edging home 4-2 on the night with Martin Robinson and the ever reliable Steve Enock both hitting 11 dolls. Also in the Premier/A  section AbingdonUtd/Con Club ruthlessly despatched Stanford in the Vale Fc 6-0 with Dave Dix, Leigh Clapton and Scott Humphries hitting a combined total of 36 dolls, that’s an average on the night of 4 dolls a leg each…………..that’s class throwing!

Elsewhere in the Premier/A section there were wins for Steventon Sports A for whom Colin Brind hit 10 dolls against Berinsfield, a 6-0 win for Red Lion over The Hart Harwell for whom Paul Leach’s 10 dolls was the outstanding contribution, but was to no avail in terms of points .

Bystander recorded their first win of the season beating The Vine 4-2  and quickly followed that up with a second win last week , this time  5-1 against the Hart with Jumbo Mott hitting 14 dolls including a 6.

Elsewhere in week 5 there was another maximum 6 recorded by Matty Cook for the Boundary House against the Bear & Ragged Staff in Section C.

Good week for the Worrell brothers who both hit 10 dolls, Jono for Abingdon United C against Berinsfield B and Dave  for the College Oak B against Red Lion B

Week, 6 threw up some interesting results with Abingdon Utd/Con Club both  Plum Pudding losing and  despite one exceptional leg of 28 dolls from Abingdon United the scores for both sides were  disappointing  against Steventon Sports and Red Lion respectively. Berinsfield with stalwarts Geoff Lee (14 dolls inc a 6) and Stuart Wilson (12) dolls in fine form saw off the challenge of Croft Nomads winning 6-0 with leg scores of 23-21, 25-22 and 21-17. For Croft Paul Stone and Steve Enock offered some resistance with 9 dolls apiece, but Berinsfield were worthy winners and rubbed it in by winning the beer leg as well!

There was an interesting second successive 6-0 win for College Oak B in the D section against Hanney RBL with Rick Selby top scoring with 12 dolls for the Oak. Hanney had the somewhat unfortunate and unenviable record of hitting 12 blobs from their total of 24 throws! Just one of those nights that the game sometimes throws up (or down)!

A couple of other interesting observations…Richard Bunce playing for The Chequers at Charney in C section has only played 2 games to date, but is currently averaging 3.5 dolls per throw and Dave Harris playing this year for his “local” the POW at Shippon  who  has already recorded a 6 this season is “topping”,   at 3.11 the averages in Section E. Ashley Jerome playing for Harwellian A also in section E hit 11 dolls for them last week when they claimed their third straight 6-0 victory and, to date, Harwellian A lead the way in that section having dropped only 2 points.

Finally, in looking at the League table I know Steve Fernback (ex Harwellian)  will be delighted to see that his new side The Fox, Boars Hill, after the recent adjustments, are leading the way in Section F!

Well, we have nearly sorted out all of the confusion that I caused last week by not updating the right week number before last Wednesday’s results started to be input. The remaining scores and amendments should be sorted by the weekend and the team and individual player scores for weeks 4 and 5 and therefore the league tables should be accurate by then! Once again apologies to those of you who are avid followers of scores and results, at the moment there are still some that need to be changed or updated.

As a result our week 5 high and low lights report is running a little late, but that again should  be available by the weekend.

Some good news for you who diligently put your results in as son as the match is over and thank you for that it is, if I have done my job right, very helpful. So this week the week number is already set at week 6 (tonight!) so there should be no repeat of last week’s debacle!

Enjoy your games tonight and as importantly enjoy what promises to be what is really promising to be our first really warm Wednesday summer’s evening.  

Unfortunately late on Wednesday afternoon we were advised that Black Swan Abingdon were withdrawing from the League. Black Swan who had been absent from the league for a number of years had only rejoined this season and had been placed in Section F.

Unfortunately despite the best efforts of their landlord and team captain a number of circumstances had left them unable to fulfil their opening fixtures. With the very real likelihood of that being a continuing problem we recommended that they withdraw and on Wednesday when, once again, they had been unable to raise a side they reluctantly agreed.

Any points awarded to opponents because of the Black Swan’s inability to fulfil their fixtures in the opening weeks will be removed.

Regrettably this means that for teams in Section F another 2  weeks without fixtures and reduces the league size to 7 and 12 games.; We would have wanted to avoid this, but hopefully as we know a number of sides have already arranged friendlies to fill “gaps” and hopefully this will continue as there are sides in other sections who also have “gaps” in their fixture list.

We will send to all secretaries details of all sides and their contacts who are without scheduled league fixtures for the rest of the season so those sides wanting to arrange friendlies know who might be available and when!