This category is for the newsletter posts – as these are automatically emailed out to mailing list subscribers, it should only be used for important announcements and updates.
Don’t forget tomorrow’s AGM which is your opportunity to have your input on the forthcoming Summer season, the league, competitions etc.
It’s also your opportunity to elect the officers who voluntarily administer the league on your behalf.
New people are always welcome to join the Committee and last year’s officers are particularly keen to have representation from teams in ALL sections.
The 2026 Annual General Meeting is being held on Monday 26th January at 8pm at The Croft Bar, Peachcroft Road, Abingdon.
A full agenda will be issued ahead of the meeting. It will include the 2025 Financial Reportand commentary, Competitions, Key dates for 2026, 2026 Registration, election of oficers and any other business.
It is your opportunity to have a say or suggest changes on any matter ahead of the 2026 Summer season.
It is also the chance to join the Committee if you would like the opportunity to have a say in how the league is managed either as a full member or as a section representative. We operate with a small band of 5 volunteers so any additional numbers and/or ideas will always be welcome
If any team, team captain or secretary wishes to raise or suggest any issues for discussion at the meeting then it would be helpful to raise these ahead of the meeting so that they can be included on the agenda for the meeting.
It’s your opportunity to have your say either as an individual or as your team representative.
Ideally we would like a representative from every team to attend, but realise that’s not likely, but if your substitute don’t/can’t make it then you lose the opportunity to have your say at the meeting as any voting needed on tjhe night is one team, one vote!
Hope to see you all on the 26th.
Regards and a belated Happy New Year to you all!
An old Abingdon Aunt Sally Singles Champion, Frank Sanders passed away in Australia on 30th November 2025 aged 86.
Our condolences are with Frank’s family.
He was the singles winner in 1976 playing for the British Legion.
His son Carl has been to the UK in recent times and obtained a set of Aunt Sally kit so the game can be started over there.
Indeed, a game was had at Frank’s funeral which I’m sure he would have enjoyed watching. You can view the highlights at https://youtu.be/6IHthGKwUUs
R.I.P. Frank.
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!
Last night was Presentation and Finals Night for the 64th League Season (65 years going strong).
Congratulations to all who succeeded – all the photos are now online.
You can see from some of the scores below that we had an interesting night of semi and finals games with some of the best players taking games to 3 legs.
I’ve said before, competitions test your mettle as a player and there’s no better way to improve and learn to control your nerves in a big game and we saw that last night!
Definitely worth watching and thanks to those who attended and helped out including
If I’ve missed anyone – and you too!
Here’s to another successful season in 2026 and to seeing you at the AGM in January.
Paul Stone
Chairman
P.S. If you have ideas or suggestions on improving this evening please email the Chairman @ AbingdonAuntSally.com
 2025 Pairs Semi Finals (1/2) |
 2025 Pairs Semi Finals (2/2) |
 2025 Pairs and Singles Final (1/2) |
 2025 Pairs and Singles Final (2/2) |
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.
An apology! To make a mistake once is careless, to make the same mistake twice is just incompetent! So please accept that’s what I am!
Tomorrow’s Founders and Legends Trophy is open to ALL REGISTERED PLAYERS AGED 50 or over NOT 55, we changed that age threshold about 5 years ago!! Thanks to Paul Barrett and others for pointing this error to me last week and then I go and repeat the same error this week!
So just to be doubly sure if you are aged 50 or more you can play tomorrow night and if you would like you can pre register either online via team support or by email or text to me roger.nichols@hotmail.com or 07768 427268
Last Wednesday, quite the worst weather we have experienced all Summer we decided to move the Final’s indoors which, fortunately we were able to do because we were at Abingdon United FC. I should straight away thank Brian Clapton and son Leigh for responding to my late, late call to make this possible.
Well not altogether surprisingly it was a very successful nitht for Premier Section Champions Abingdon Conservative Club who secured all of the titles on offer starting with a straight 2 leg victory over Croft Nomads in the Team 8’s. Putting Croft in, the Nomads scored a respectable 23 dolls, but that was not enough as the Con Club left anchorman Phil Adams needing only 1 doll to win the leg and, not surprisingly, he obliged with his first stick! Croft chose to set in the next leg and although they once again set 23 it was not enough and anchorman Phil Adams once again saw them home. Top scorers wer3 Alex Chamberlain with 9 dolls and Ken Fisher with 7 for the victors although one suspects Phil Adams might have been leading the count is he had needed to throw his 12 sticks. For Croft Steve Enock with 9 and Chris Jenkins with 7 dolls apiece led the Croft’s efforts.
Next up it was the 4’s final and this time the Con Club’s fearsome foursome were Alex Chamberlain, Dave Dix, Ken Fisher and Phil Adams against the Plum who had Mick Samways and Simon Winterbourne stepping in for the unavailable Paul Longford and Dave Bradshaw who had been part of the Plum’s team in the earlier qualifying rounds. Plum’s Paul Leach hit 7 dolls and Terry Downes 6, but with Alex Chamberlain’ s first leg 3 and Dave Dix following that with a 5 the Plum’s first leg total of 7 was soon overtaken It was Plum again who set in the second leg and with 3’s from Terry and Mick and a 4 from Paul Leach a target of 11 looked a good set, but 3 4’s from Alex, Dave and Phil was enough to see the Con Club home in 2!
The third and final competition was the 5’s and in this competition the Con Club were sure to taste defeat (only because their 2 teams were playing each other so one had to lose!!) Surprisingly the scoring in this final with the extra player was very similar to the scoring in the 4’s with the 4 leg scores being 10-9, 13-12 in favour of the A team featuring Alex, Tom Lach, Ken and Phil. The B side comprised Paul Barrett, Tom Baldwin, Bob Duff, Dave Davies and Leigh Clapton. Top scorer in this final was Dave Dix with 9 dolls.
This week it is the Founders & Legends Trophy which will be held at the Conservative Club on Wednesday evening. This is open to all registered players aged 55+with Registration on the night from 7pm with the draw taking place at 7.20, no latre registrations will be accepted. Play will commence at 7.30 after a remaining semi final and final of the Thames Cable Pairs trophy take place.
It could be a long night depending on the weather so we would ask all players to arrive promptly, register quickly and be ready to play when called to avoid delays between games. If you want to pre-register you can via the Team support link on the website or, by sending me an e mail/text message that will help speed up the process on the night as we will be a couple of committee down!!
Match ResultsP/A – Abingdon United A 6 – Steventon Sports SC A 0; Legs (22-17, 24-21, 23-18)
P/A – Berinsfield SC A 5 – Croft Nomads 1; Legs (27-25, 28-26, 28-28)
P/A – College Oak A 2 – Abingdon Conservative Club 4; Legs (19-31, 23-25, 21-20)
P/A – Red Lion A 6 – Plum Pudding 0; Legs (21-20, 30-24, 26-17)
P/A – Stanford in the Vale FC 6 – The Vine, Cumnor 0; Legs (25-21, 24-16, 23-17)
B – Abingdon RBL 4 – Royal Oak 2; Legs (11-13, 12-10, 13-9)
B – Bear & Ragged Staff 2 – Harwellian B 4; Legs (18-14, 10-13, 16-17)
B – Fleur De Lys A 2 – Earl of Abingdon A 4; Legs (12-13, 13-14, 15-13)
B – The Bell A 4 – WADS Bar 2; Legs (18-13, 9-11, 16-14)
B – The Croft Bar 6 – Abingdon United C 0; Legs (15-11, 15-10, 18-12)
C – Boundary House 4 – The Bell B Grove 2; Legs (15-8, 13-9, 10-15)
C – Brewery Tap 0 – The Fox, Denchworth 6; Legs (9-14, 5-13, 5-14)
C – The Earl of Abingdon B 4 – Red Lion B Drayton 2; Legs (15-7, 14-13, 5-17)
C – The Wheatsheaf, Didcot 6 – The Midget 0; Legs (19-9, 17-8, 17-16)
D – Harwellian A 4 – College Oak B 2; Legs (9-4, 9-11, 12-10)
D – Prince of Wales Shippon 4 – Fleur de Lys B 2; Legs (14-10, 11-14, 13-8)
D – RAL Social Club 0 – Plough West Hanney 6; Legs (5-12, 8-12, 10-11)
D – Steventon Sports B 4 – The Fox Boars Hill 2; Legs (8-7, 12-8, 11-13)
D – The Lamb Wantage 0 – The Plough Inn Long Wittenham 6; Legs (8-11, 10-12, 1-12)
E – Black Horse E.Hanney 0 – Bystander 6; Legs (7-15, 8-12, 4-11)
E – Challow Cricket Club 5 – Crown Marcham A 1; Legs (11-11, 11-9, 13-4)
E – Hanney RBL 2 – Marcham Centre A 4; Legs (8-10, 11-10, 6-9)
E – Queens Arms Didcot 6 – The George Sutton Courtenay 0; Legs (7-6, 10-7, 12-5)
E – Waggon and Horses B Southmoor 6 – Berinsfield SC B 0; Legs (18-8, 11-8, 8-4)
F – Black Swan 0 – Ladygrove A 6; Legs (6-8, 5-6, 8-11)
F – Crown Marcham B 5 – Plough Appleton A 1; Legs (7-7, 12-7, 10-6)
F – Long Wittenham AC 6 – Horse & Jockey Stanford in the Vale 0; Legs (10-8, 7-4, 9-7)
F – Marcham Centre B 1 – Grove RFC 5; Legs (11-20, 8-8, 8-13)
F – North Star B 4 – The Lamb Wantage B 2; Legs (8-4, 6-7, 18-7)
A Watson-Harrison (The Lamb Wantage B), Adam Davies (RAL Social Club), David Mills (Brewery Tap), Jo Wilson (The Fox Boars Hill), John C Vaughan (Harwellian A), Lloyd Woodington (Berinsfield SC B), Matt Tarrant (Ladygrove A), Mckenzie Godfrey (Horse & Jockey Stanford in the Vale), Michael Barry (Harwellian A), Nigel Tait (Abingdon RBL), Pam Edwards (Black Horse E.Hanney), Pete Hogan (C) (The Lamb Wantage), Robert Beasant (Black Horse E.Hanney), Sarah Stacey (Plough Appleton A), Simon Busby (Berinsfield SC B), Tessa Beasant (Black Horse E.Hanney), Tom Moore (Royal Oak), Wayne Robins (Plough West Hanney).
Alex Chamberlain (Abingdon Conservative Club), Barry Townsend (Croft Nomads), Gary De La Ruiz (Harwellian B).
Andy Morton 3-5-2 (Abingdon United A) – Week 18
Andy Phelps 5-5-3 (Berinsfield SC A) – Week 18
Andy Shipman 4-1-5 (Harwellian B) – Week 18
Bob Duff (S) 5-3-1 (Abingdon Conservative Club) – Week 18
Charlie Guinan 5-3-2 (The Wheatsheaf, Didcot) – Week 18
Dave Collett 1-1-5 (The Plough Inn Long Wittenham) – Week 18
David Mott 2-5-3 (Abingdon United A) – Week 18
Dean Bowler 3-3-5 (Red Lion A) – Week 18
Dennis Forbes-Smith 5-2-1 (Waggon and Horses B Southmoor) – Week 18
James Fletcher 2-1-5 (North Star B) – Week 18
Jason Bowler 3-2-5 (Abingdon United A) – Week 18
Ken Fisher 2-5-1 (Abingdon Conservative Club) – Week 18
Kevin Billington 0-5-1 (Red Lion A) – Week 18
Mark O’Neill 5-2-2 (Grove RFC) – Week 18
Mark Weston 5-1-1 (Plough West Hanney) – Week 18
Paul Leach 5-4-2 (Plum Pudding) – Week 18
Phil Soden (CS) 3-5-4 (College Oak A) – Week 18
Sam Weston 5-1-3 (Bear & Ragged Staff) – Week 18
Steve Weeks 5-0-3 (The Bell A) – Week 18
Steven Pembroke 1-1-5 (Plough West Hanney) – Week 18
Stuart Wilson (C) 5-4-2 (Berinsfield SC A) – Week 18
So how do we reflect on the Summer? Firstly with lots of pleasure because this year we achieved our goal of attracting 60 teams to our league with 8 new teams welcomed some joining for the very first time, others returning after a time away and a few other changes saw some changes of names and venues for old friends. Remarkably the Summer was kind to us as well with Wednesday evenings being mostly rain free and warm! Can’t always say that, but it certainly helps! Equally remarkably our game attracted 835 actual players in total over the course of the season with 60 teams that’s at least 16 players and some onlookers at 30 pubs or clubs every Wednesday evening for 18 weeks! That must be good for business!
So who were the successful teams now that it is all over for another season? Firstly all teams were successful in their own way not necessarily because they won their section or finished runners up, but because they took part, introduced new players to our game and spent some much needed income in the pubs and clubs who provide the facilities and the environment which enables our game to continue to thrive.
We do need to reflect on to last week’s games and there were some tight finishes some of which were decisive in determining winners and runners up in some sections. The Premier section winners were Abingdon Conservative Club who finished 12 points clear at the top of the table averaging over 24 dolls per leg over 54 legs! A challenge and achievement for us all to aspire to (in our dreams!). Special mention to both Phil Adams and Dave Dix from the Con Club who both just fell 1 doll short of that coveted maximum 18 dolls match total. Maybe next year it will happen! Runners up in the Premier were Croft Nomads who despite losing 5-1 at Berinsfield SC A still managed to retain second spot because their nearest rivals Plum Pudding needing a win on the night at the Red Lion A, but they lost 6-0 so were unable to close the gap finishing 5 points adrift.
It was those 2 winning sides who dominated the A section, Berinsfield SC A winning the title with a 12 point winning margin over the Red Lion A who finished runners up.
The B section went right to the wire and it was the Croft Bar who clinched top spot by just 3 points with a closing night 6-0 victory over Abingdon United C and Abingdon RBL also won on the night to secure the runners up spot.
The C section was comfortably won by The Wheatsheaf who had an excellent season losing only 2 of their 18 matches, runners up in this section were The Bell B from Grove who enjoyed another successful summer.
The D section was won by The Plough West Hanney who topped the table for most of the season so congratulations to them and to the section runners up from East Hagbourne, The Fleur de Lys B.
The E section was, like the B section, a close run thing with 4 teams contesting the top spots for much of the year. At the end though it was The Bystander who came out on top just 1 point ahead of runners up The Waggon & Horses, both sides winning 6-0 on the last day! Marcham Centre A who had been in contention for a long time fell short on their last day going down 5-1 against Hanney RBL, but can take the consolation that their skipper Brian Bosley secured the overall top dolls total for the section.
Finally to the F section the home of several of our new teams i 2025. With lots of solid performances through the Summer Ladygrove and Long Wittenham AC can be pleased with their first year in the league, but it was last year’s newcomers grove RFC who clinched the title and long serving North Star B who finished runners up in this section.
Finally let’s not forget all of those players who recorded personal double figure scores last week, some for the first time (and last) this season.
Leading the pack last week was Alex Chamberlain for AB Con Club with 14 dolls including a maximum 6 Phil Adams and Dave Dix chipped in with 12 and 11 respectively for the league champions. In the Berinsfield SC A match against Croft Nomads, Andy Phelps top scored with 12 dolls for the home side and for the Croft both Barry Townsend (with a 6) and Chris Jenkins matched Andy’s 12. Also in this pretty high scoring match Stuart Wilson with 11 an Mick Greenaway and Richard Jones weighed in with 10 dolls each and for the Croft it was Alan Bell and Steve Enock with 11 dolls apiece.
In the Plum Pudding v Red Lion game Paul Leach and Dean Bowler for the Plum (Paul) and Red Lion (Dean) both hit 11 and also for the Lion, Scott Tabor racked up 10 dolls.
Elsewhere Phil Soden’s 12 dolls were his best of the season, Gary de la Ruiz’s 12 for the Harwellian B included a 6, Andy Morton’s 11 was joined in double figures by team mates, Jumbo Mott, Jason Bowler and Steve Martin who all contributed 1o dolls for Abingdon United A. Steve Davidson, mine host, captain and secretary for the Fox Denchworth led his team with 11 dolls.
There were lots of 10’s scored last week William Glen for Stanford FC, Charlie Guinan for the Wheatsheaf, Andy Shipman of the Harwellian B and his Harwellian clubmate from the A side Woodie Reiszner all broke single figures with 10 dolls each.
A final mention in the race for top doll scorer for top doll between father and son Billy and Dave Collett it was Billy who came out on top by just 4 dolls despite Dave outscoring him 7 to 5 last week. The difference in their season’s totals was probably decided by Billy playing all 18 fixtures whilst Dave only played 17!
Just to close this last league review of the season I would just like to remind you that the season is yet to finish! Tonight (Wednesday 10th) we will be staging the team competitions finals at Abingdon United and next week, Wednesday the 17th it is the Founders & Legends Trophy at Abingdon Conservative Club again from 7.30 which is open to all registered players aged 55 or over, registration on the night from 7 to 7.15. We also plan to hold the remaining semi final and final of the inaugural lower section pairs (D/E/F) before the start of that competition.
Even then the summer season isn’t completely over as we will stage our Presentation Night at Abingdon United FC from 7pm on Friday 10th October when the singles and pairs semi finals and finals will be played and all of the season’s trophies will be presented.
Don’t hang up your sticks just yet:
That’s it for this season’s Roger’s Ramblings! Huge thanks to every player, captain, secretary, landlord/lady, steward, and supporter. Whether you played every week or just stepped in when needed, you’ve helped keep this wonderful game not just alive—but absolutely thriving.
Here’s to another cracking season. Cheers!
Roger Nicols
League Treasurer and Match Secretary