Archive | Summer League Reports

The Abingdon & District 2022 Aunt Sally season reached it’s conclusion last Friday with a very well attended Presentation Night held at Abingdon United FC. The highlight of the evening was the semi-finals and finals of both the Pairs and Singles Competitions which set the scene for what was to follow, the awarding of all of the league and team and individual competitions Trophies that had been competed for throughout the Summer. Amongst other things the evening provided a memorable and emotional finale with the last throws of the 2022 season in the Singles final. More of that later.

The evening started with the pairs, in the first of the two semis Ian Brook and Steve Enock from Croft Nomads were pitted against Geoff Lee and Stuart Wilson from Berinsfield Social Club who, on the night, were just a little more consistent and proceeded through to the final where they were facing Barry Townsend and Phil Adams from the Plum Pudding who had taken down the father and son pairing of Leigh and Brian Clapton from Abingdon United in the other semi-final. Brian was a late replacement for Scott Humphries who unfortunately had to miss the night due to work commitments.

Then it was time for the Singles semi-final’s featuring 2 previous Champions in Dave Butler and Barry Parker.

The first semi saw a battle of the “Daves” with Dave Sapey overcoming Dave Butler in a tight encounter.

The second semi-final was between Paul Barrett and the legend that is Barry Parker, who because of health problems, had only managed a handful of games through the season, but was clearly determined to compete in spite of his ongoing health issues. And compete he did, defeating his Abingdon United teammate to advance to the final.

So the singles final was to be a battle of old “Abingdonians” Dave of Abingdon Royal British Legion against Barry of Abingdon United. 

Before then though was the Pairs final and that ended in a comprehensive win for the Plum Pudding pair in 2 straight legs chasing Geoff and Stuart’s sets of 5 dolls in each leg Barry Townsend contributed 11 dolls, a magnificent 6 in the first and followed that with a leg equalling 5 dolls in the second! This meant that the contribution from Phil Adams was not necessary in the first leg and then Phil was only required to throw 2 sticks in the second leg (he missed with his first surprisingly), but the title was theirs with 12 dolls scored from 14 sticks thrown!

So, to the Final with Dave Sapey making his first appearance against one of the legends of Aunt Sally and former world champion Barry Parker who has more than a little experience of playing in Finals having made well over a dozen appearances in individual competitions in his career and even more in team competition finals and as a key “anchor” for several league winning teams over many years.

The final produced drama and emotion, but not the high scoring that both players are more than capable of. In the first leg Dave was only able to hit 1 doll and Barry passed that with his 4th stick to win the first leg. The second leg was tighter. Dave setting hit 3 and Barry matched that, so it was down to 3 sticks apiece to decide the leg. Dave’s 1 doll was not enough with Barry equalling that , so it was 1 stick apiece………….both missed so back to 6 sticks to decide the second leg and Dave again set and it was 2 dolls so Barry needed 3 to win the final and he duly obliged with a stick to spare. The reception Barry received was the one he deserved as a true champion, an example to all who play the game at whatever level.

It was then on to the presentation of the Trophies all presented by our Chairman Reg Couch and there was a really good turnout from teams representing both winners and runners up of each of the 6 sections, the top doll scorers in each section, the various competitions and of the newly named Founders and Legends Trophy which was won by Derek Fletcher of Steventon Sports Club aptly at Steventon Sports.

The evening ended with a grand raffle with most of the prizes generously donated by members, teams or pubs (including AllSports who provide our trophies) who are members of the league in 2022. Thanks to a few who helped the evening run almost smoothly including our master of ceremonies, Paul Stone, to Ellen our photographer who took over 60 snaps throughout the night (these will be online in a couple of days –ed: ONLINE NOW), to our callers and “sticker uppers” namely Terry Downes, Ken Fisher, Dave Davies and Bob Duff, our “groundsman and caretaker” Brian Clapton who spent 3 hours helping to set up the room in the morning when he probably wanted to be “having a lie down” to prepare for his appearance later in the day and a very special thank you to Mick Samways who stepped in to oversee our raffle sales to ensure that we recovered all our costs of the evening through the raffle sales (Mick once a shopkeeper, always a shopkeeper!)

A full list of all of winners and runners up for the season will be on the website soon, all that remains is for me to close with a big thank you to all, who despite all of the challenges, made the 2022 season as successful as we could have hoped for back in the early part of the year!

And don’t forget the AGM in January 2023!

The Summer 2022 League is upon us and the Committee have been working hard to get ready for a new season…

WE START THIS WEEK on 11th May. 

Competition Entries close 30th May. 

8s Competitions will be played on THURSDAYS in June/July (TBC)

Founders & Legends (Over 50s Only) is on 14th Sept – turn up and play.

FINALS NIGHT 21st September

PRESENTATION NIGHT – 4th November 2022

Website Logins!

You may have a login on this site so that

1. we can keep in touch with newsletters and/or
2. to enter match cards if you are a Captain or Secretary

Please try your login NOW – especially those of you who enter match cards – you don’t want to get stuck when you win your first game on Wednesday!

If you don’t have a valid email address on your login you won’t get newsletters nor will you be able to reset your own password should you have lost it! So check your own account as soon as so we can make any necessary updates soonest. Login and check the profile in the top right hand corner where it says Hi!

You CAN register a new account but the email address has to be unique (and not used before) and as we have to vet these (you wouldn’t believe how many email addresses from abroad we get asking to register so they can try to hack our site) please make it obvious you are a genuine person or venue – or just drop a second email to Team Support so we can join you and the team up.

 SUMMER 2022

It has, for obvious reasons been very quiet on the website for several months now. Our 61^st and 62^nd years since the formation of the Association were memorable for all the wrong reasons, no formal matches or competitions, no leagues, for the first time since our founders created  the Association and in that 2 year period we have lost several friends many of whom were stalwarts of our game

optimistic and hopeful that this Summer we will have the opportunity to get out, play and enjoy our much loved game. So at the very least we have to prepare for the season ahead so that if we do have a “green light”, our pubs and clubs remain open, we are prepared and ready to go come May!

There are lots of things to do to get ready starting for many, many years. It also looks like we have lost for good some of the pubs and clubs who have graced our league because they have had to modify to maintain their livelihood and, we know that in some cases, that has meant the loss of space that previously was occupied by Aunt Sally pitches. As I write this we are in the midst of another variant causing mayhem throughout the country which still threatens further restrictions beyond Plan B!

Despite all of the continuing uncertainty we have to remain with holding our Annual General Meeting, provisionally arranged for February 21st (more details to follow in a few days),  hold our registration night, format our leagues , competition dates and entries etc etc and all of that takes time  It’s weeks not days of preparation required!

So, what we need to at this stage, is to organise our AGM, set an agenda, review and revise our  rules where necessary, and seek feedback from our member clubs as to what they want from us or ideas they want raised and considered at the AGM.  Most importantly, we want a season of Aunt Sally in 2022 if at all possible with as many teams and as many players new and old competing in the game we all enjoy.. In 2020 we had 60 teams and over 800 players registered,  unfortunately it wasn’t to happen because of Covid!  Clearly we think there will, be fewer teams and players if we do get off the ground this Summer, but we also will try to enlist new teams, new venues and teams and players including those who have previously played in the league and try to attract new pubs and clubs who have never thought of the benefits  opportunity to host Aunt Sally on a Wednesday evening, our game, which typically attracts a captive audience of 20 to 30 people spending money in the bar drinking and having fun for 20 weeks or so through the summer come rain or shine!

So let us have your views, talk to your mates, let’s make it happen this year, let’s not miss the opportunity of getting our game back by “waiting to see” if it can happen because if we do that we probably won’t be ready for a May start. If your pitch has gone there are lots of other venues who will be glad to offer you  their facilities as they have a spare pitch every other Wednesday or a spare “pitch” that isn’t being used at all. We can help to “find you a home”!

Finally, we really do desperately need some help on the Committee.

For the past 3 years there has been only 5 of us and that’s not enough! We need new (even old) blood to help us, bringing new ideas and energy to the Association, we will need new players, and most of all we need your commitment and ideas so we ask that you don’t just ignore this e mail, give us a response preferably via e mail or verbally however brief, throw us your ideas as to how we can build back after 2 years of near inactivity.

We will get our game back, but we need your support and we need people to offer to help, our Committee of 5 is likely to become 4 after the AGM and whilst all help will be appreciated what we are desperately short of is computer literacy so maintaining individual and team scores, league tables, website is a real challenge and although it makes life easier to do things “online” that’s only true if you know what you are doing! So expertise in this area is critical……otherwise we will have to enlist a couple of our grandkids and they will want paying!!

The winter league has been operating since October successfully and that is indoors, remember we, in the Summer,  are outside where the Covid risks are, according to the Science, much less transmissible.

Many of us did play last Summer all friendlies with about 10 to 12 teams taking part and whist we all were grateful there is nothing, even in Aunt Sally, like a bit of cut and thrust competitiveness, but what tells us is that people want to play Aunt Sally so

Feedback, ideas and thoughts please any way you want to give it and then we can give those an airing at our AGM next month!

Your 2020 Aunt Sally Committee

Abingdon & District Aunt Sally Season 2020

It is looking increasingly unlikely well, actually impossible, in the current and ongoing  pandemic crisis that we are going to be in a position to stage our Aunt Sally season this year, our 61^st as an Association and the first time that the league will not be contested. Our thoughts earlier in the lockdown were that we might be able to resume playing in July  and at least play half of our planned fixtures, but with the continuing extension of the lockdown and, in particular, the restrictions affecting both social  gatherings and the opening of pubs and clubs we now have to be realistic and cancel the 2020 season. Hopefully we will come back as strong as an Association and with renewed enthusiasm for our game in 2021! 

That leaves us with a dilemma as we have already collected entry and registration fees for 2020 and these were banked in the Association’s account back in February.

As a Committee we have agreed to give all teams a say on what we do with the monies collected and we have come up with 3 options.

• We can arrange re-imbursement to each team of the monies paid by them. This would have to be in the form of a cheque.
• We can waive 2021 league entry and registration fees for all teams next year  and  possibly reduce the 2022 fees by 50% £20 per team of 14 players to encourage teams back playing when life returns to something like normality.
• We can make a donation of all of the fees collected to the NHS Oxford Charities in recognition of all of the efforts, stresses and commitment those working in the NHS have, and are still going through.

We are asking each team to have one vote each on their preference via their nominated Captain or Secretary and will abide with the majority decision from the 60 teams who entered the league this season.  

Each of these options are not ideal, the first depends on getting the fees back to the right people. It could be an individual, the pub/club landlord or steward, or everyone registered with that team. We have no way of knowing who actually parted with the money!

The second assumes all teams who entered this year will be up and running again in 2021 to take advantage of the no registration fee.

The third option is the easiest to administer, but may not be a majority choice as it only goes to one source.

We do want your views. We should have 60 votes to register and we do ask that you don’t just make the decision yourself ask your teammates and your landlord/steward if you possibly can, but please reply either to me or to Vic Pratt ideally by no later than May 31s, preferably by e mail. Our e mail addresses are roger.nichols@hotmail.com  c.v.pratt1@btinternet.com

In the event that the restrictions ease and pubs and clubs re-open at some stage before our normal end of season (mid September) we encourage teams to start playing again via inter team competitions or friendlies and should it be possible we will even try  to arrange some of our team and individual Competitions perhaps over a couple of weekends late in the Summer.

Remember as well as we want to be playing again our pubs and clubs even more will need our support and our money!

Stay safe!

Now that all league games are over and nearly all results have been uploaded can I ask that all section winners and runners up please check spellings of names of all players that have contributed this year on the web site all scores section, as it will be this data that will be used in the production of the plaques. If we are not notified of errors (via team support or any committee member) they will not be changed after engraving is completed

https://abingdonauntsally.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-FIXTURES.pdf