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Just a reminder that registration Night for the forthcoming Summer season will take place on Monday evening from 7.30pm at the Abingdon Conservative Club, Ock Street Abingdon.

A few things you need to know:-

• Registration fee for 2026 is unchanged at £45 and that includes up to 15 players (additional players can be added throughout the season at the Committee’s discretion).
• Payment can be made only by cash or cheque on the night. At the moment, unfortunately, we do not have a bank or card transfer facility.
• Receipts will be issued as proof of entry, to enable, where appropriate, fees to be recovered where necessary from pubs/clubs.
• Although registration will start at 7.30pm there is no need to rush because we will be there until at least 9pm.
• Please make sure you have a copy or photo of your registration document as there are no photocopying facilities available on the night.
• Please make sure you have completed all of the details including (legible) telephone number and e-mail addresses of your Secretary and Captain as they will be the main point of contact through the season together with the website.
• Registrations for the Skol Trophy (the team 8’s handicapped knock out competition) will also be accepted on the night (entry fee £8 per team), but as we are making some changes to the handicap system for 2026 the entry date for this competition will remain open to all registered teams until the end of March.
• The league season will start on Wednesday April 29th and conclude on and will conclude at the end of August.
• The 1st round of the Skol Trophy will start the Summer season on Wednesday 22nd April for competing teams.
• On Monday we will take orders for essential equipment which we will then order and deliver before the season starts. Again any orders should, if possible, be paid for on Monday by cash or cheque. Current prices are £65 for a set of six sticks, £20 for dolls, £25 for irons, and £30 for swivels these prices are considerably cheaper (up to 40%) than quoted retail online prices and from the same manufacturer!
• All of your information packs including section formations and fixture lists will be available both online and hard copy delivered by early April.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask them on Monday when registering your team(s).

If for any reason you are unable to make it on Monday can you please send a representative and failing that, let us know in advance, either by e-mail using the team support facility on this website or alternatively by telephone to me (07768 427268).

We will be sorting out the league structure within the next few days following Monday so if we haven’t entered or paid your registration we can’t include your team.

Our website was set up several years ago (well 10ish) and has met our needs adequately since one of our former Chairmen James Barguss and our current Chairman Paul Stone designed and got built the website enabling the Association to move into the 21st century. The current site has served us well, but technology moves on at pace and some of the functionality has, over time, become redundant and therefore inhibits our ability to upgrade/enhance our capability. Hence our need to find someone, hopefully from within our own community or someone who is known to our community to help with a rebuild of the site, or at least allow it to move to the latest software. 

The “someone” needs to be a system developer who has a sound knowledge of PHP and WordPress and who can migrate the site from our previous now redundant canvas theme to another theme which will in turn enable us to install the newest updated PHP version and increase the effectiveness of our website.

Whilst these skills may not be obvious within our immediate Aunt Sally population we are, initially reaching out to all in our community in the hope that someone’s son or daughter, grandson or granddaughter, friend, work colleague, neighbour etc will have the skills that we need!

This work ideally needs to be evaluated, completed and tested between now and the start of the Summer 2026 season (March/Aprol when we start setting up the league) so time is of the essence! 

Any ideas, suggestions or names would be very welcome and Paul Stone will be happy to brief any possible candidate on the requirements and it goes without saying that the Association will be prepared to remunerate the individual(s) for all work undertaken on our behalf!

Please contact Paul or myself, Roger Nichols via the team support or direct if you can help or know someone who may be able to!

Well last night’s Founders & Legends Trophy singles competition held at Abingdon Conservative Club was the final Wednesday of the Summer season which started 22 weeks ago with the first round of the Skol Trophy 8’s competition and ended with another long established Competition which commemorates all of the players and officials of the past who helped form, compete and administer our league for the past 65 years! 

Before that Competition though we played out the remaining semi final and final of our newest competition the Thames Cable Pairs which was new in 2025 and restricted to players from teams in the D, E and F sections. The competition attracted over 20 entries and matches were very competitive in  the earlier rounds, which were played up to the semi final stage when  held at the Harwellian Club last month.

The first semi final was between two sides from The Fox, Boars Hill  represented by Steve Fernback and Jo Wilson  and they played that semi final a couple of weeks ago against team mates Alan Fowler and Todd Morris on a neutral throw with Alan and Todd winning through after a tight contest which ended with a 3 stick shoot out.

So last night it was the turn of the other semi finalists who were Keiran Murphy and Michael Rainbow  from 2025 newcomers to the league Long Wittenham Athletic Club and they faced John Curry and Ashley Jerome representing Harwellian A. In another tight game that went to 3 legs it was the Harwellian’s who won through to face Alan and Todd in the final.

Again a close run contest which proved a “stretch” too far for the Fox pair and again after 3 legs it was,  due in a large part to an excellent 4 doll leg from John which saw the Harwellian pair to become the first winners of this Competition kindly sponsored, as is the league overall, by Thames Cable.

With those matched decided it was time to move on to the main event and one which so many players are eligible for being of or over a certain age! Disappointingly entries this year were significantly down compared to recent years, but 16 players took to the oche to compete for the Trophy and there were a number of tight matches in the early round before Geoff Lee, Dave Butler, Leigh Clapton and Dave Sapey  progressed to the semi finals. Both semis both of which were only decided after 3 legs and it was Abingdon Con Club’s Leigh Clapton and Berinsfield SC A’s Geoff Lee who made it through and then in the final it was Leigh who triumphed  to take yet another title, this time though a singles title, to the  Abingdon Conservative Club whose domination this year in all competitions is there for all to see.  They are far from finished and in just a few weeks time when they are represented in both the Singles and Pairs semi finals, our final competitions of the season on Presentation Night which takes  place on Friday October 10th at Abingdon United.