Didcot Bowls Club was host to a 6 rink match kindly arranged by Bowls England President Michael Jennings against Disability Bowls England on 31st July 2016.
Michael who selected Disability Bowls England as his charity for the year arranged the match to celebrate the progress made by the association throughout the year and to meet some of the members, which included the 2014 Commonwealth Games Para Triples bronze medallists.
The club made everyone feel very welcome and their facilities first class. Luckily the weather was kind and a large number of spectators enjoyed the competitive match that was played in such good spirit.
Unfortunately for President Michael, he skipped against the very talented Bob Love who guided his rink to a 29-12 win, which added to the other 4 rink wins resulted in a fantastic win for Disability Bowls England by 140 shots to 98.
Spectators and players against the DBE team were surprised and appreciative of the talent and skills shown and all agreed that the disability team were very worthy winners.
Disability Bowls England truly appreciates the money that Michael is collecting but the increase in awareness as he travels around the country to the various clubs is priceless!
This type of match is important for regular club players to appreciate that players with a disability are just bowls players with a couple of different issues to cope with. Equally, it is important that players with a disability start to believe they can be accepted in clubs and can play just as well as anyone else.
On every level this match was a great success and a very positive advertisement for Disability Bowls England.
M. Monkton, DBE Player Development & Elite Performance
Chris Gray, Andrew Taylor, Gary Swift & Bob Love: Won 29-12
Barry Jones, Simon Wright, Mike Birch & David Fisher: Won 27-15
Ray Smith, Jeanette Maisey, Keiran Rollings & Gill Platt: Lost 20-28
Steven Bigg, Lynn Bigg, Jonathan Stokes & Paul Brown: Won 24-16
Christine Linegar, Marjorie Convey, Mo Perry & Ron Homer: Won 18-13
Geraldine O’Donohue, Adrian Mellows, Bob Henstridge & Mac Otton: Won 22-14
Photos: Gallery