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Important Competition News

By Roger Nichols on 21st May 2024 in Committee Meetings, Competition News, Newsletter, Summer League Reports

At a meeting of the Committee on Monday 20th May a number of important decisions were agreed which affect our 2024 Competitions. These affect all entrants already received and those which teams or individuals were about to make about entering.

Despite extending the closing date until yesterday we are still well down on the entries particularly for the team events which were scheduled to take place on Sunday June 9th. With only 2 confirmed entries for the team 5’s, 3 entries for the Team 4’s and 5 entries for the Red Drive 3’s competition the Committee decided to postpone the Sunday June 9th competitions until later in the Summer. We really can’t justify staging competitions where the number of entries do not make the Competitions meaningful.

We decided to extend the entry date with a new closing date of Sunday June 16th (Father’s Day) for all Competitions and subject to the number of entries received by that date we hope that we can re-arrange a suitable date and venue to hold these team competitions which have been held annually for over 50 years!!

Entries for all Competitions will remain open until this mid June date and we already have a better level of entry for both the pairs and singles competitions which, together with the Captains and Secretaries Competitions will take place in early August as planned. All Competitions will, as agreed, at the AGM, earlier in the year still be held on Sundays.

The Committee also discussed the planned competitions exclusively for teams in Section B and below for which no entries have yet been received. Again we are keen to hold at least pairs and singles competitions for players in Sections B, C, D , E and F to encourage as many people as possible playing Competitions and we are proposing new trophies for these this year.

Finally on Competitions we are encouraged by the number of newcomers to our league this year and to recognise that we are looking to possibly hold another couple of Competitions (you will note that we are never put off entirely despite the lack of entries) so later this year we are looking to stage a ladies pairs competition open to all registered lady players (mixed from any team) and an under 25’s competition again open to all registered players. We will post entry forms for these two proposed new competitions together with the very flexible rules in the next few days.

Finally Competitions are an essential part of our heritage and we don’t want to lose them, we actually want more not less hence our discussions and decisions taken at Committee tonight.

So please get your entries in too many is not a problem too few is!

It’s the old adage it you don’t enter, the Competitions may not be viable this year and into the future, and they are a significant part of our heritage!

The trophies both team and individual also represent a very sizeable cost to the Association so that has to be justified because it’s your money we spend! So, the more entries the merrier is certainly true in this case.

Remember entry costs only £1 per person for all of our competitions so buy your ticket to enter now!!!

(Chairman’s Remarks: – it’s a cliche but competitions can test your mettle so much more than a weekly game, as Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor from the darts world said “You can’t practice ******** yourself” – to be a better player practice only goes so far, competitions sorts the cool from the collapsing which also means it can be anyone’s win. Get your entries in and see if you have the ‘right stuff’.)

Summer 2024 Week 2 Results

By Paul Stone on 20th May 2024 in Newsletter, Summer League Reports

Match Results

Premier/A

College Oak A 2 – Croft Nomads 4; Legs (19-20, 32-24, 24-29)
Plum Pudding 4 – Bystander A 2; Legs (18-20, 32-21, 23-20)
Red Lion Drayton 6 – Steventon Sports SC A 0; Legs (26-17, 25-18, 26-20)
The Vine Cumnor 3 – Abingdon Utd@ConClub 3; Legs (21-20, 19-25, 20-20)

B Section

Harwellian B 4 – The Plough Long Wittenham 2; Legs (13-11, 12-8, 6-13)
The Bell A Grove 6 – Fleur de Lys A, Hagbourne 0; Legs (14-12, 11-10, 8-7)
The Croft Bar 4 – Abingdon RBL 2; Legs (10-11, 13-4, 16-12)
The Fox Denchworth 4 – Stanford in the Vale FC 2; Legs (15-14, 9-15, 15-13)
The Grapes B 5 – Abingdon United C 1; Legs (13-9, 12-12, 9-8)

C Section

Abingdon Con Club 4 – The Grapes A 2; Legs (11-13, 15-11, 15-10)
Eight Bells Eaton 0 – Boundary House 6; Legs (14-20, 11-17, 7-12)
The Bear and Ragged Staff Cumnor 2 – The Prince of Wales Shippon 4; Legs (18-11, 10-11, 10-14)
The Oak Didcot 4 – The Waggon and Horses Southmoor 2; Legs (11-4, 14-10, 9-11)

D Section

Berinsfield SC B 2 – Harwellian A 4; Legs (7-8, 11-16, 12-10)
Brewery Tap 2 – College Oak B 4; Legs (13-11, 10-13, 8-9)
The Chequers Charney 4 – The Plough Hanney 2; Legs (6-11, 13-8, 14-8)
The Lamb A Wantage 0 – Red Lion B Drayton 6; Legs (4-13, 10-16, 8-9)
The Queens Arms 2 – The Midget 4; Legs (4-8, 11-9, 6-12)

E Section

Bystander B 2 – Hanney RBL 4; Legs (9-8, 7-9, 7-9)
Marcham Centre A 6 – Horse & Jockey A 0; Legs (9-4, 11-6, 17-4)
RAL SC 6 – The Lamb B Wantage 0; Legs (10-7, 10-7, 13-10)
Steventon Sports SC B 4 – North Star A Steventon 2; Legs (6-14, 8-7, 11-10)

F Section

Bystander C 4 – WADS Bar 2; Legs (9-14, 9-5, 12-11)
Fleur de Lys B Hagbourne 6 – Sutton Courtenay FC 0; Legs (13-6, 11-7, 15-7)
Horse and Jockey B Stanford i-t-V 0 – Marcham Centre B 6; Legs (4-5, 8-14, 9-11)
The Plough Appleton 0 – Grove RFC 6; Legs (3-7, 7-8, 1-4)

Bl0bbers

Less this week – hang in there – good dolls will come!

Adam Harris (Hanney RBL), Alan Wilkinson (The Plough Hanney), Ashley Wheeler (The Waggon and Horses Southmoor), Chris Dennis (Sutton Courtenay FC), Colin Down (The Grapes B), Debbie Case (Grove RFC), Enya Mayall (Horse & Jockey A), Ian Ray (Horse & Jockey A), James Faulkner (College Oak B), Jason Walker (The Midget), Joe Murphy (The Queens Arms), Mark Sheldon (Horse and Jockey B Stanford i-t-V), Nell Ahier (Harwellian B), Nigel Tait (Abingdon RBL), Paul Norris (The Waggon and Horses Southmoor), Rhys Lewis (The Plough Appleton), Robbie Cook (Grove RFC), Scott Gardner (Horse & Jockey A), Simon Busby (Berinsfield SC B), Tim Payne (Fleur de Lys A, Hagbourne), Will Shallis (The Plough Long Wittenham), William Hutchinson (The Plough Appleton).

Sixers

No sixers again this week but here are those only 1 doll away…

Andrew Farrant 5-2-1 (Eight Bells Eaton) – Week 2
Caroline Baker 3-5-2 (Red Lion B Drayton) – Week 2
David Dix 3-5-5 (Abingdon Utd@ConClub) – Week 2
Dean Bowler 5-3-3 (Red Lion Drayton) – Week 2
Ian Brook 2-5-4 (Croft Nomads) – Week 2
Kevin Billington 1-2-5 (Red Lion Drayton) – Week 2
Luke Dewar 3-5-3 (The Grapes B) – Week 2
Michael Samways 0-5-0 (Plum Pudding) – Week 2
Pat Wiltshire 5-1-1 (The Bell A Grove) – Week 2
Paul Leach 3-5-4 (Plum Pudding) – Week 2
Simon Winterbourne 2-5-2 (Plum Pudding) – Week 2

Summary of week 2 some highlights and some lowlights!

By Roger Nichols on 20th May 2024 in Newsletter

Well week 2 fixtures certainly provided some excellent performances for some and some not so good performances for others!

Let’s start with the search for that elusive first maximum throw of the season…………well after 2 weeks we are still waiting for the first 6 of the season to be recorded. Plenty of players getting close with 8 players scoring 5’s and Dave Dix actually hit two 5’s in recording the best 3 leg total of 13 dolls in Abingdon Utd/Con Club’s 3-3 draw with The Vine Cumnor who shared the spoils for the second successive week. Other players hitting 5 dolls on the night were Mick Samways for the Plum Pidding (I won’t mention his 3 leg total score!), Kevin Billington and Dean Bowler both for the Red Lion A Dean actually hit 11 dolls overall, Pat Wiltshire, for the Bell Grove A, Luke Dewar for the Grapes A Andrew Farrant hit a 5 for the Eight Bells at Eaton in the same match , but his efforts didn’t help his side as they went down 6-0. Caroline Baker also contributed a 5 doll leg for the Red Lion B in her 10 doll total on the night.

There were plenty of double figure scores recorded with Scott Humphries and Leigh Clapton hitting 10 apiece to support Dave Dix’s 13 for Abingdon Utd/Con Club for their hosts The Vine Danny Hamilton also hit 10 dolls. Elsewhere in the Premier Dave Hudson making his first appearance of the season hit 10 dolls as did Colin Brin for Steventon Sports, Ian Brook top scored for Croft Nomads with 11 dolls in their 4-2 win at near neighbours College Oak A for whom skipper Phil Soden also scored 10, Karl Ford hit 10 dolls for the Boundary House as they got their campaign underway in some style with their maximum points win at the Eight Bells.

It would be remis of me not to mention 2 very special leg scores by Section A sides College Oak A and Plum Pudding who both recorded 32 doll leg scores in their matches against Croft Nomads and the Bystander A. I know these scores included their handicap. but excluding those they still managed “real doll” scores of 25 and 26 which is remarkable when they started the season with 2023 team averages of less than 17 dolls! Great contribution from all of the team in both cases!

And now for a score at the other end of the range! The Croft Bar entertained Abingdon RBL and whilst they assure me they won the beer leg in the second leg of the match (which they lost 4-2) they managed only 4 dolls! With a team that consistently performs well in the B section that was more than a little surprising !!

Looking overall at the results after just 2 weeks it is interesting to not that no team in the Premier, A, B, C, and D sections have maximum points from their 2 games so if that trend continues it promises to be an interesting season in all of the sections. Some of the new teams with many new players are still finding their feet (and scoring throws!), but I am sure that they will soon start scoring well and winning games, but most of all enjoying their Wednesday night’s Aunt Sally experience. Newcomers Fleur de Leys B in the F section are the exception as they are off to a flying start with 2 6-0 wins already under their belts!

Finally this week can I thank everyone for getting their match score cards recorded so promptly. All cores were online by lunchtime Friday and that’s great. We know some people have difficulty getting online so bear with us while we sort that and until we do it’s OK to send photo’s of match cards please to either myself or Paul Stone and we will ensure that they get entered. One plea though on match cards please proper names, not nicknames. That’s fine for the scoreboard but match cards we need to make sure we know who’s who if we have to enter and whilst I can sometimes work out from the surnames I did struggle last week to find out who Monkey really was!

Have a great week!

Team and Individual Competitions- Closing Date

By Roger Nichols on 18th May 2024 in Competition News, Newsletter

A reminder to all teams entries for the Competitions close tomorrow night. We can extend the entries for the Singles, Pairs, Captains and Secretaries until late June as the date for those Competitions to take place is not until early August however entries for the Team events do need to be in this week as the date for those Competitions are only 3 weeks away. At the moment we have a very limited number of entries so team captains and secretaries get your entries in before it is too late! Entry is open to all teams in all sections for these events.

We also intend to hold pairs and individual competitions exclusively for teams in section B and below later in the Summer and more details will be available over the next couple of weeks. The main singles, pairs, captains and secretary competitions are open to all sections so if individuals fancy their chances or simply just want to take part they can enter both singles and pairs competitions!

We know that Sundays are not universally popular as a day to stage Competitions, but the Committee and those clubs at the AGM supported the move to Sundays. Whilst we do have some dissenters the past 2 years since we switched to Sundays have been pretty successful and particularly beneficial that most who entered turned up and competed unlike with our previous system there were many no shows and those who did turn up didn’t always get to play on the night because of the “no shows”

The important thing it is a personal choice as to whether individuals choose to enter or not and we respect that, but we also want to create the opportunity for everyone to take part and to make the Competitions easy to organise and administer and most of all competitive and enjoyable for all of those involved.

Remember the great British tradition…………….it’s not about the winning, it’s about the taking part so let’s have as many us taking part even though our expectation of winning the Competition may not be great!

A few interesting bits about out 2024 league

By Roger Nichols on 15th May 2024 in Newsletter, Summer League Reports

As ! mentioned in my week 1 post we are delighted to welcome 56 teams to our 6 Aunt Sally sections for 2024. A few things that might surprise you about our league and what happens on Wednesday nights from May through to September.

With 56 teams that means that 28 venues will be hosting Aunt Sally matches throughout the season
15 venues with two teams will host games on at least 16 Wednesdays
24 other venues will host games on 7/8 or 9 Wednesdays
1 venue will play host to 2 teams every Wednesday and an additional team on another 8 because they have 2 throws!
We have registered almost 900 players for our 56 teams, that’s an average of 16 registered players for each team.
26 matches will take place every Wednesday and that means over 400 players will be in pubs and clubs in our catchment area.
If only the 8 players from each side turn up and each spend on average £10 on the night that’s £160 of income for either 9 weeks (£1440 per season) or (£2880 for pubs and clubs with 2 teams!) For the one “lucky” host pub with 3 teams that income would be over £4000 over the season.
Of course we know that not everyone spends £10, some of us make up for that by spending more and lots of sides have more than just their 8 players especially at home venues.
The cost of entry for the Aunt Sally League is just £45 a year! Good value when you look at potential income versus expenditure!!

So if you or your landlord, manager or steward need re-assurance that it is worthwhile hosting an Aunt Sally team or two feel free to share these observations with them! It’s recognised that the income excludes the cost of all of the overheads including drink, staff and other overheads, but we suggest it’s still not a bad return for that £45 cost of entry and where would those 400 punters be on a Wednesday night if it weren’t for Aunt Sally!!

Summer 2024 Week 1 Results

By Paul Stone on 13th May 2024 in Newsletter, Summer League Reports

Match Scores

Premier/A

Abingdon Utd@ConClub 5 – Bystander A 1; Legs (27-19 18-17 21-21)

College Oak A 2 – Steventon Sports SC A 4; Legs (20-26 19-24 24-22)

Plum Pudding 4 – Berinsfield SC A 2; Legs (28-16 18-25 21-19)

The Vine Cumnor 3 – Croft Nomads 3; Legs (18-24 23-23 21-18)

B Section

Abingdon United C 0 – Stanford in the Vale FC 6; Legs (7-16 11-19 10-14)

Harwellian B 2 – The Bell A Grove 4; Legs (14-12 12-15 11-12)

The Croft Bar 4 – Fleur de Lys A Hagbourne 2; Legs (9-12 14-8 12-11)

The Fox Denchworth 5 – The Plough Long Wittenham 1; Legs (7-7 9-8 10-6)

The Grapes B 1 – Abingdon RBL 5; Legs (10-10 14-17 13-16)

C Section

Eight Bells Eaton 2 – The Grapes A 4; Legs (13-11 10-12 6-12)

The Bear and Ragged Staff Cumnor 0 – Abingdon Con Club 6; Legs (7-9 7-14 12-13)

The Bell B Grove 6 – The Waggon and Horses Southmoor 0; Legs (14-5 18-9 12-9)

The Oak Didcot 6 – The Prince of Wales Shippon 0; Legs (17-10 13-10 16-9)

D Section

Berinsfield SC B 0 – The Midget 6; Legs (8-10 10-13 10-15)

Brewery Tap 4 – The Plough Hanney 2; Legs (18-8 9-8 11-13)

Red Lion B Drayton 4 – Harwellian A 2; Legs (4-8 15-11 11-10)

The Lamb A Wantage 2 – College Oak B 4; Legs (9-7 7-13 5-11)

The Queens Arms 2 – The Chequers Charney 4; Legs (6-11 6-12 12-10)

E Section

Marcham Centre A 4 – The Lamb B Wantage 2; Legs (8-8 9-9 14-5)

North Star A Steventon 6 – Hanney RBL 0; Legs (11-8 13-8 11-7)

Steventon Sports SC B 6 – Horse & Jockey A 0; Legs (17-2 7-4 11-5)

The Wheatsheaf Didcot 5 – RAL SC 1; Legs (13-10 13-12 10-10)

Bystander C 6 – North Star B Steventon 0; Legs (4-3 11-5 6-4)

F Section

Fleur de Lys B Hagbourne 6 – Marcham Centre B 0; Legs (10-7 12-5 7-6)

Sutton Courtenay FC 4 – Grove RFC 2; Legs (9-10 13-8 14-7)

The Plough Appleton 0 – WADS Bar 6; Legs (1-12 4-7 6-8)

Blobbers

Abigail Ray (Horse & Jockey A), Adam Harris (Hanney RBL), Anna Antell (The Plough Appleton), Archie Davidson (The Fox Denchworth), Chris Wilding (North Star B Steventon), David Baker (Harwellian B), Edward Walker (The Lamb B Wantage), Enya Mayall (Horse & Jockey A), Jess Bailey (North Star B Steventon), Jessica Ray (Horse & Jockey A), John Colgrave (North Star B Steventon), Ken Tombs (Marcham Centre B), Lisa Stone (The Queens Arms), Lucas Bowler (The Plough Appleton), Maurice Owen (Abingdon United C), Mick Wright (Marcham Centre B), Nigel Tait (Abingdon RBL), Paul Golding (The Plough Appleton), Paul Norris (The Waggon and Horses Southmoor), Peter Hogan (The Lamb A Wantage), Phil Neale (The Plough Appleton), Richard Blake (The Queens Arms), Rob France (Marcham Centre B), Russell Stock (The Fox Denchworth), Sandra Buchanan (The Lamb A Wantage), Simon Busby (Berinsfield SC B), Will Shallis (The Plough Long Wittenham).

Sixers

No sixers this week – it can only get better because here are those who were 1 stick short!

Andy Barrett 1-5-1 (The Croft Bar) – Week 1
Colin Kilpin 0-5-2 (The Bell A Grove) – Week 1
David Dix 5-3-5 (Abingdon Utd@ConClub) – Week 1
Ian Brook 5-2-4 (Croft Nomads) – Week 1
Paul Barrett 5-2-2 (Abingdon Utd@ConClub) – Week 1
Phil Adams 5-5-4 (Abingdon Utd@ConClub) – Week 1
Simon Armstrong 3-2-5 (The Queens Arms) – Week 1
Terry Downes 2-5-4 (Plum Pudding) – Week 1

Summer League underway and week 1 review

By Roger Nichols on 13th May 2024 in Newsletter

The league season got underway on what was a most welcome fine and warm Wednesday last week! This season sees a very welcome 56 teams competing in the 6 sections, an increase of 4 teams overall on 2023.

We welcome 6 new teams to our league from the Horse & Jockey at Stanford in the Vale with 2 teams , Grove Rugby Club, The WADS bar at Wootton, another additional team from the Fleur de Leys at East Hagbourne and 2 teams from the Marcham Centre. Unfortunately we have lost the Wheatsheaf Drayton, the Black Horse Hanney, the Plum Pudding and one of the Brewery Tap teams from 2023.

Fortunately despite a number of hostelries closing who have hosted Aunt Sally in previous seasons sides from many of those have found a new home. The Fox at Boars Hill will play at the Bystander whose B side from 2023 have returned to their former home at the Waggon & Horses Southmoor, the 2 sides from the Abingdon Arms in Wantage have found new homes at the Bell Grove and The Lamb Wantage who have also welcomed the team formerly at the Black Horse Hanney and the team from the Hart at Harwell have moved a couple of miles down the road to a new home at the Plum Pudding in Milton where they have been joined by one of the stalwarts of our league Terry Downes.

There has been quite a lot of player movements as well largely as a result of the Plum Pudding not retaining a Premier section side for 2024. The good new is that almost all of their side from 2023 have found new teams primarily at Abingdon United/Con Club, Croft Nomads and Abingdon RBL. So we may have lost a very good team, but we have retained several very good players some of whom made very good performances in their first league appearances for their new sides last week.

I should also mention that we are delighted to see The Plough Appleton return to the Aunt Sally family this year.

So, in summary although we failed to reach our very ambitious stretch target of 60 teams for 2024 we are delighted to welcome so many new and returning teams, relocating teams and many, many new players to our game. We hope you enjoy it and stay with us for many seasons! It’s great to see that Aunt Sally is still alive and kicking and supporting not only our game, but most importantly so many of the pubs and clubs in our communities.

So onto the week 1 review of results and individual performances. let’s start by looking at the overall results. in the Premier/A section Abingdon Utd champions for several seasons got off to a flying start defeating the Bystander A 5-1 with new recruit Phil Adams hitting the top individual score of the night with 14 dolls, ahead of team mates Dave Dix who hit 13 dolls and another new recruit Ken Fisher who also contributed 10 dolls to the cause! There were wins also in the Premier/A section for Steventon Sports A 4 -2 against newly promoted College Oak A, Plum Pudding against Berinsfield A and the Vine and Croft Nomads shared the spoils with a 3 apiece draw.

Elsewhere there were many good individual performances, but no magical 6’s! In the premier?A section both Ian Brook with 11 and Alan Bell with 10 dolls started their season in good form as did Alec Chamberlain with his 10 dolls for Berinsfield A and Terry Downes playing for the “new” Plum Pudding helped them off to a winning start with 11 dolls at the College Oak. In the C section Rod Dorian scored 10 dolls for the Royal Oak and just down the road also in Didcot Simon Armstrong matched that score for the Queens Arms in the D section both sides winning their matches against the Prince of Wales Shippon and The Chequers, Charney 6-0.

Other winners on the first night were Stanford In the vale FC.Abingdon RBL, The Bell Grove A, The Fox Denchworth and The Croft Bar in the B section. The Bell Grove B together with The Grapes A, Abingdon Conservative Club were winners in section C, REd Lion B, College Oak B, The Midget and the Brewery Tap got off to winning starts in the D section and in the E section newcomers Fleur de Leys B and the WADS Bar were both winners on the night together with Sutton Courtenay FC and The Bystander C.

A great start to the season which is always great to see and with over 200 players playing Aunt Sally in 27 different venues last Wednesday providing a boost for our pubs and clubs which form such an essential part of our community

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