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Well, the inevitable happened last week, Dave Dix hit 14 dolls for Abingdon Conservative Club as they recorded their second successive 6-0 win over Plum Pudding whose defeat continued their disappointing start to the season. Paul Barrett also continued his good form with another 12 doll haul! Paul has now hit 5, 5 doll legs in his last 4 games. Surely a maximum will soon happen!

Dave shared his best of the season with Richard Jones who also hit 14 dolls as Berinsfield SC A continued their excellent start to the season with a fifth consecutive victory as they beat the previously unbeaten Steventon Sports A 5-1.

Abingdon United A secured their first win of the season as they overcame Croft Nomads 4-2, Jason Bowler top scoring for United with 9 dolls. Ian Brook led the fight for the Nomads with 10 dolls.

Darren Bennett with 10 dolls and Martyn Bolton with 9 helped The Wheatsheaf to a 4-2 win at The College Oak and The Red Lion were also winners at Stanford FC 5-1 being the scoreline with Scott Tabor and Ian Rogers leading the way with 9 dolls apiece for the Lion. The B section saw Abingdon RBL land their first win of the season 4-2 against The Fox, Denchworth whilst the WADS Bar were 6-0 winners against The Bear & Ragged Staff. but with 23 points still trail the Vine by 1 point as they overcame The Plough, West Hanney 4-2 with a 10 doll contribution from Matt Dingle aided and abetted by 9 dolls each for Jerry Brandish and Steve Peedell and 8 dolls for Ethan Taylor making his first appearance for the Vine. The Croft Bar suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Royal Oak whose Steve Jones top scored with 10 dolls.

A first appearance of the season for skipper Brian Bosley with 8 dolls was not enough to get Marcham Centre A to stop Grove RFC landing their 5th win on the bounce as they continue to lead the C section. There were a share of the points between The Earl of Abingdon B and The Fleur de Lys A where 9 dolls was the order of the night. Russell Flower for the Earl and Darren Sargison and Danny Towlerton all falling just one doll short of making double figures. 

The D section saw The Fox Boars Hill land their 5th win on the bounce at Steventon Sports with a maximum 6 points.  The Earl of Abingdon were also 6-0 victors against The Prince of Wales despite 8 dolls scored by skipper Dave Harris for the Feathers. Craig Hillier for the Earl also hit 8. Debutant Matt Davies hit a first leg 5 dolls but it was not enough to secure a leg for the WADS Bar B as they also suffered a 6-0 loss against Long Wittenham AC for whom Michael Rainbow led the way with 9 dolls and it was a welcome 6-0 win for The Bell A in the same section for whom Steve Browning scored 11 dolls and Martin Bland added 9 more.

The E section also saw two 6-0 wins, as Hanney RBL carried on their successful start to the season at the Eight Bells and The Crown Marcham A turned over the Lamb B by the same score. Red Lion B and Challow & Childrey CC shared the points. In the F section Brewery Tap continue to lead the way and there were also wins for The George, Harwellian A and the Queens Arms.

Newcomers in the G section Oxford RFC had a 5-1 win, The Seven Stars were 4-2 winners at the Red Lion and the White Hart B side were also winners on the night.

Overall last week there were some good scores (maybe the warmer weather helped!) with 24 dolls being the best legs of the night, a 23 leg from the Vine in Section B and leg scores 0f 16, 17 and 18 being recorded across the B, C, D and E sections. On the night there were no sixes, lots of individaul 5’s and there were 23 “blobbers” who failed to score on the night, but not for the lack of trying!

Just a reminder about the Competitions for singles, pairs, Captains and Secretaries which officially closed yesterday. As I write this we have only received entries from 4 teams! As both Paul and I haven’t been around for a few days I think we have to extend the date until this coming weekend, but not beyond then. At the moment we do not have enough entries for any of the planned competitions so if that doesn’t change significantly this week there will be no competitions held on the planned date (28th June) and personally I think that will be tragic for a league that has 66 teams and over 600 active registered players!!!

One final note regarding fixtures on June 17th when England play Croatia in the FIFA World Cup, with a 9pm GMT kick off time. We recognise that some teams will want to change their games scheduled for that night so in the next few days the committee will issue some guidance and options for fixtures scheduled to take place on that night. The guidance and outcome will need to be mutually agreed between the competing sides and based on being reasonable.

Again with apologies for the late post again! I will try to do better after tonight’s fixtures!

Firstly though I want to start by sharing some very sad news. Tony Ward one of the top Aunt Sally players in both our Winter and Summer Leagues over many years passed away last week. Many will know that Tony had battled against illness for several years and that illness had caused his retirement from our game in recent years. Our thoughts and sympathy go out to Doreen and all of Tony’s family and friends from all of the Aunt Sally community. Tony’s funeral will be held at the South Oxfordshire Crematorium at 1pm on Friday 19th June and will be followed by a gathering at Abingdon British Legion, just one of the venues that Tony played his Aunt Sally so successfully at.

Tony was a serial winner both as an individual and as a team member. Tony played for many teams in both our seasonal leagues including the Saxton Arms and Football Club, Abingdon Legion, Penlon, Heineken and Abingdon United. It was with the Legion that he featured in the highest single leg score in 1974 contributing 5 dolls in a 37 leg total when Abingdon Legion had 2 players who each hit maximums 3 others, who like Tony hit 5, one player with 5 and surprisingly one who managed only 1 doll. In that line up that night for the Legion were current players Dave Dix and Paul Leach and that was over 50 years ago!

Tony won the Singles title at least twice firstly whilst playing for the Saxton and also for Abingdon United and many, many other team awards for all the teams he represented.

Now, to last week’s results. In the Premier section there was a welcome return to winning ways for Abingdon Conservative Club even without the missing Dave Dix and Phil Adams. They still managed a 6-0 victory at their old stamping ground Abingdon United. Despite the margin of the win the doll difference on the night was only 7 dolls! Rolling back the years for the Con Club Brian Clapton hit 10 dolls and Paul Barrett for the 3rd successive week hit double figures. For United it was Dave Hudson leading the reply with 9 dolls. 

In the Prem/A section the clash between the 2 previously unbeaten sides was another close encounter which resulted in a 4-2 win for Berinsfield SC A courtesy of a 1 doll winning 3rd leg at the Red Lion which puts the Berinsfield boys very well placed as leaders of the Premier section. Malcolm Jones recorded a maximum for the visitors and promptly followed it with a blob in the next leg!

Croft Nomads enjoyed a very sociable evening at the Wheatsheaf Didcot, helped by a 6-0 victory with double figure contributions from Steve Enock and Barry Townsend with 11 dolls each well supported by Alan Bell and Chris Jenkins both weighing in with 10 dolls

In the A section Stanford FC continued their strong start to the season winning their game at the College Oak 4-2. Steventon Sports A strengthened their position at the top of the A section beating the Plum Pudding, Scott Humphries and Derek Fletcher top scoring for the Sports with 9 dolls apiece and Terry Downes matched that score for the Plum.

In the B section it is WADS Bar heading the table with a 4th consecutive win 4-2 against The Fox Denchworth but on the night The Fox may have felt a little disappointed as they actually scored 42 dolls against the 40 scored by the winners! Derrick Brown scored 11 dolls for WAD’s. It was a similar close encounter at the Croft Bar whose 4-2 victory over the Fleur de Lys B side only featuring 66 dolls in total across the 3 legs.

A 4-2 victory was also secured by The Plough West Hanney against Abingdon RBL for whom Paul Ealey hit a maximum, only the second one of the night throughout the league, but the home side with a strong contribution from Mark Wheeler came out with the win with only a 1 doll advantage overall and ironically that was in the leg which saw Paul hit his maximum!!

The C section saw wins for Grove RFC, Harwellian B who included an equal top scoring 11 dolls on the night from Gary Daluz Veira and The Earl Of Abingdon A, In the D section had wins for The Bell A, Earl of Abingdon B to complete a winning double for the Earl sides and The Fox, Boars Hill for whom Rory Mangan top scored with 10 dolls against the soon to be “home again” North Star. We should mention our thanks to The Plough who have kindly “hosted” the Star whilst renovations have taken place. The pub should re-open next week!

The E section saw Challow & Childrey outscored by 1 doll on the night by Berinsfield SC B, but were still able to emerge winners on the night. Eight Bells Eaton had a very welcome 6-0 win when they visited The Crown and in the section it was a 4-2 win for current leaders The Brewery Tap and The Lamb A.

The G section which is made up almost entirely of new teams this season saw The Old Anchor claim local bragging rights when they defeated near neighbours The Black Swan and fellow newcomers The Seven Stars were 4-2 victors against The White Hart B.

The G section also included something last week that is/maybe/probably is a record that is a first in all of the history. There are 6 of the 7 sections led by teams who have won all their games played so far. Interestingly 2 of the teams are Rugby Clubs, 4 are predominately social clubs and only 2 are traditional “hostelries”, that together with our 3 football club based teams is confirmation that Aunt Sally is a game for everyone. This maybe/probably is representative of our licensed premises in these times, but it is good for our game that Aunt Sally is still able to be played in so many places.

An apology from me to anyone whose individual total scores I have missed in recent weeks (including this one) which I know includes Steve Fernback of the Fox Boars Hill, Dean Bowler of the Red Lion and I am sure several more. Not deliberate I promise!!

And now for a couple of  reminders:- 

Firstly, Competition entries for the Singles, Pairs, Captains and Secretaries (all open to all registered players from any section) need to be with us by next week with a closing date of May 31st (all competitions need a minimum entry of 8 and entry is just £1 per person) and will be played at Abingdon United on Sunday 28th June.

Secondly, already a number of fixtures have been postponed for sound reasons and these need to be re-arranged. Would the Captains/Secretaries please confirm the new dates as soon as possible to me please because the re-arranged games will need to be entered by the Committee in the week when they should have originally been played. Any fixtures not mutually arranged or played by the end of June may see the points to awarded against the side who originally requested the re-arrangement.

Thirdly, On Wednesday 17th June England are in World Cup action and will almost affect out fixtures that night with, hopefully, most it not all players, wanting to watch the game live. We will within the next week issue some guidance as to what the options (again they need to be mutually agreed) for fulfilling the fixtures scheduled that night.