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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.

Aunt Sally on Socials!

You may have noticed our old Facebook account has been closed. This is because Facebook required a profile account to be linked to an identifiable person (with id). SO we’ve now launched a new page based on a ‘business’ setup (it’s still free). From your perspective it looks and feels the same but gives us better control and functionality.

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialAbingdonAuntSally

Or search for     OfficialAbingdonAuntSally

(we couldn’t reuse the old name).

Just ‘Like’ the page and you’ll be kept informed.

We still have our Twitter account @AuntSallyLeague 

So you can keep up with new posts with Twitter or Facebook as you choose.

And of course you can add comments so keep it respectful and let’s spread the word about the great game we love (and hate!).

Paul Stone – Chairman

P.s. I’m looking into why the email system isn’t working so we’ll get that fixed soonest – this works by registering on the site with an email address obviously and emails new post notifications straight to your inbox.

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Week 3 with a few surprises

Well, last Wednesday saw a few shocks and in one or two cases some shocking performances!

Let’s start with the shocking performance the match between Croft Nomads and Bystander A in the Premier/A section where no fewer than 9 blobs were registered and in the case of yours truly and your Chairman both playing for the Croft, the shed door looked to be in more danger of being hit than the doll! Fortunately for the Croft the Bystander also struggled on the night and the collective score form the 16 players on the night was 81 dolls. To put that in perspective Steve Enock, Martin Robinson and the “handicap” were joint leading scorers with 9 for the Croft and the handicap of 12 was the “highest performer” for the Bystander!

 

Elsewhere a 6 from Darren Holmes, the only maximum of the week, (welcome back Darren) in his 10 and  10 from  Leigh Clapton was not enough to stop Abingdon Utd/Con Club, missing Dave Dix,  slipping to a 6-0 defeat to the Red Lion Drayton for whom captain Kevin Regan top scored, also with 10 dolls. Red Lion hit, without their handicap,  a remarkable 24 dolls in the 3rd leg, but in the first two legs the teams were only separated by only 1 doll and that was with a handicap advantage of 5 in favour of the Red Lion so it was a close encounter!

Plum Pudding also slipped to a defeat, losing 4-2 to The Hart Harwell. Again 10 dolls was the top score on the night for The Hart it was Paul Leach who and for the Plum Pudding it was Phil Adams who hit double figures. Again overall the scores were very close with only 1 doll between the sides on the night in the first leg with the other 2 legs shared.

Stanford in the Vale FC’s heady start to the season came to  an end at the hands of Steventon Sports who by virtue of their 4-2 victory are the early season leaders of the Premier whilst Stanford retain their place at the top of the A section.

There was a good smattering of individual scores again last week with double figure contributions from Jono Worrell in Abingdon United’s narrow 4-2 defeat by the Abingdon Arms A side, Mark Jones hit double figures for Berinsfield A, and Andy Phipps, Billy Collett, Steve Fisher, John Allnutt all contributed with double figures as highest individual scorers for their teams. It is really encouraging to see so many different players from hitting the what seems to some of us the dizzy heights of double figures from each of the sections.

Early Pacesetters in each of the sections (it is early days, I know) are Fleur de Leys, Hagbourne in the B section, Boundary House and Grapes A in the C section, Bystander B in Section D, Prince of Wales, Shippon in Section E and The Wheatsheaf Didcot in Section F.

Surprisingly after only 3 weeks there is no team in any of the sections with a 100% record in terms of points although a number of teams have yet to lose a match, but all teams have lost or drawn at least one leg!

Next week’s review will concentrate on some of the scores, players  and results from Sections B, C and D.

 

Would secretaries and team captains look out for an e mail in the next day or so regarding the forthcoming Competitions to be held at Abingdon United on June 21st………….we need more entries to make these competitions work for everyone and at the moment it is not looking good in terms of numbers!

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Week 2 Summary and highlights

Firstly let me start with a week 1 apology to Scott Humphries who I failed to mention recorded a 6 in his 13 dolls against Berinsfield A, sorry Scott.

Week 2 saw some very good individual scoring across all sections so for some obviously week 1 was a necessary early season excursion after, for many, a long lay off. Week 2 was a statement of having had the initial game many of you are back on it with 18 double figure scores recorded and unusually individual double figure scores were recorded in every section. Maybe, for some, improved scoring was helped by the fact that last Wednesday was  a  little warmer than previous weeks.

Top doll man last week was Barry Townsend  who hit 13 dolls in Plum Pudding’s 6-0 win over Bystander A. Jason Bowler hit a fine 11 for the Bystander in reply.  Another 6-0 victory in the Premier/A section  saw Stanford in the Vale FC comfortably beat Croft Nomads with Garry Gibbard hitting and Rob Glen both hitting 11, but Garry was the star of the night with his excellent second leg 6 and the result leaves newly promoted Stanford with a clean sweep of 12 points from their first two. matches

12 dolls were recorded by Dave Dix for Ab Utd/Con Club, Paul Leach for The Hart Harwell,and  Phil Soden for College Oak A whilst mention should be made of Dean Bowler,Danny Hamilton, Matt Dingle, Steve Taylor , John Allnutt, Rick Selby, Billy Collett, George Gregory, Bob Duff and Mark Newman all of whom made double figure contributions for their sides last week.

Just a reminder that the Competition entries are due in by the end of the month for all of the remaining competitions which will take place on Sunday June 25th (3’s, 4’s and 5’s) and Sunday 6th August (pairs, singles, Captains and Secretaries)m so please get your entries in asap either direct to a member of the committee or via the team support link on the website.

Finally it was good to hear that some of the teams with byes in sections C and below are taking the opportunity of arranging friendlies when they have no scheduled league fixtures. That’s encouraging and ensures that not only are people playing when they don’t have a  competitive match, but most importantly we are still supporting our pubs and clubs every week.

Hope week 3 goes well for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

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2023 Fixtures ONLINE!

The 2023 Fixture list is now available on line.  See 2023 Fixture List PDF

NOTE There is a minor problem with the fixture as printed (and PDF) for the Harwellian B, Abingdon Arms A/B, Abingdon RBL and Wheatsheaf Didcot due to a home game clash due to two team venues. Team captains have been contacted that are affected and have agreed to reversing the home/away status for some matches. Ask your captain/secretary for details.

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2023 8s Handicap Knockout Competition

We had 12 teams entered into the Team 8s competition this year so there are 4 preliminary matches….

Don’t forget there is a handicap in place 2 dolls for each section difference so A playing Prem would have 2 dolls up to a max of 10 dolls for Premier vs Section F for instance.

Prelims will be played on 3rd May and the 1st Round matches on a mutually agreed night during June.

Handicaps, where appropriate,  will be determined by the Section position of competing clubs and will be confirmed once league sections have been published (late April)

Preliminary Home Away
1 Abingdon British Legion Fox Denchworth
2 Berinsfield A Steventon Sports A
3 Abindon Utd C Bell @ Grove
4 Plum Pudding Steventon Sports B

1st Round Matches

Match Home Away
A Bystander A Winner of Prelim 4
B Winner of Prelim 2 Winner of Prelim 3
C Ab Utd @ Con Club Winner of Prelim 1
D Croft Nomads Abingdon Con Club

 

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40th Winter League Finals

Well the 40th Abingdon & District Winter Aunt Sally League Finals and Presentation Night took place last Wednesday. 

We had a great set of competition finals including a long fought battle for Singles champion between Leigh Clapton and Anton ‘Tosh’ Woolloff with Tosh becoming the winner. Presentations were given by World Aunt Sally Champion Barry ‘The Iceman’ Parker.

Best Performance of the Night was a tight run thing but Dave Dix clinched it with his 5-5-5 performance in the 5s. If you need full details, the obvious question is why weren’t you there, but Brian Clapton has the record.

I know Tosh would want to remind Winter League teams that there is an Extraordinary General Meeting on the 26th April to discuss the Winter league and he’d like all teams represented. Tosh has run the league for probably the best part of that 40 years so I know he’s got some important things to say on the night.

 

 

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Update on 2023 Season Section formation etc

Since Registration Night there has been a few additional teams registered bringing the total number of teams registered to 52 an increase of 4 from 2022. Whilst this is great because our prime objective is always to grow both the number of teams and individuals playing our game as possible. 52 represents a not insignificant growth in numbers when you consider the challenges that pubs and clubs and their customers (us!) face in these difficult economic times.

The increase in numbers has, though,   presented us with a dilemma, but in keeping with our desire to have as many teams as possible playing we have decided to add an extra section this season. This means that there will be 10 teams in the Premier/A section and in the B section with 8 teams in Sections C,D,E, and F. This means that instead of 18 matches in these sections there will be only 14 with 4 byes in each.

It’s worth reminding all teams that positioning in sections is, as it has been for several years, based on the aggregate score of the top 8 players from the previous season assuming they have registered again for 2023. In a few cases some teams and some players did not play in 2022, so where appropriate averages from their last full season (2019) has been taken into account. This process means that some teams may find themselves in a higher or lower section this year than last and this is simply because either their average determines that or because their registered players have changed. The handicap system used for the Premier and A section is based on exactly the same principles. 

On the positive side, for those sections with less teams  we have been able to arrange  the sections so that they free up 2 teams from each section each week which will give the opportunity to either arrange friendlies or even an informal “supplementary league” with teams from across 4 sections having the opportunity to play each other. We will have to sort out how best that is organised a bit later, it will probably need to be sorted by the teams affected, but it does give the opportunity for all teams to play 18 games and every week over the season if they want to..

As a result of these considerations the production of the fixtures etc has been slightly delayed, but all of the details will be with you by the end of April. The  league season proper starts on May 10th with the 1st round of the team 8’s knockout handicap competition scheduled for the week earlier May 3rd and the draw for those games will be published on the website and to the respective teams in the next few days.

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Winter League Finals TONIGHT!

Its the Finals Night for the Winter League tonight at Abingdon United FC so pop along to see some good games fingers crossed.

The Summer is coming and hopefully by May we’ll get rid of these heavy April showers which aren’t good for anyone’s doll score!

We’ve done the 8s draw and had 12 teams entered – fixtures will be published this week online ready for the preliminary matches on 3rd May.

The final summer sections will be at the printers soon and distributed as soon as we can, ready for the league start on 10th May.

Further details will be coming soon! 

 

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