DOUG BARRETT TROPHY 2014

From Our Correspondent

Saturday 27th December saw the annual Doug Barrett, men against women, match, which resulted in a win for the ladies team!  Yes, you read that right!  Unbelievable!

PARIBC women beat PARIBC men, (7 rinks), by 145 shots to 114 shots, with the men’s top rink comprising Tom Heward, Dave Clare, Mike Williams and Mo Tipper, whilst the ladies top rink comprised Doreen Langley, Jean Lacey, Georgina Maillardet and Linda Hoare.

With illness rife at the club over the Chrimbo period, 8 people were confined to the sickbay and so the match was reduced to a 7 rink affair and 3 men also changed sex for the day and played for the women with George / Georgina Maillardet saying he liked it so much, he doesn’t want to swap back!  Besides, he never plays as well as he did today when he is in his male configuration, so perhaps there is something in it?!  Meanwhile Sue Smith got to use her new Chrimbo presents, (a bottle of tippex and white stickers, that her fella and Club Captain, Trevor Bishop, had splashed out on!), straight away, as she wrote and rewrote, six times, all the score cards and meal seating plans!  However it must be noted and stressed that with all the other men having man – flu, (ladies, you just will never understand that this is the worst illness ever and I mean ever!), they decided to soldier on and ensure the match went ahead and play through the pain, rather than let the ladies down and equally, the men had to go easy as they had to go home with their women folk and still had a few days of the festivities to get through, so wanted to remain on the right side of those who must be obeyed!  Rumour also has it that the PARIBC men were resting a lot of their top name star players from their squad, due to the amount of games coming up over the festive period and besides, it gets boring when the men win every year doesn’t it!  Oops, looks like I will need full body armour next time I come into the club and speak to any of the lady members?!

Having said all that, the ladies team as a whole did bowl well and out bowled the men’s team.  As I can only speak from what went on our rink, then have to concur with the fact of being out bowled, which for yours truly, is what happens every week anyway!  Lead Christine Heward, (now very trim and slim and off to Potters yet again next week, don’t forget my postcard, but don’t tell Tom!), was on fire and set the standard, Fran White then promptly strengthened the head from a ladies point of view and with the competitive nature of both number 3, Jill Tipper and skip, Babs Tomlin, both drawing shots in or taking woods out, then we stood no chance against this loaded rink!  With the men’s lead on this rink being absolutely useless, then it was three against four, with the men’s 2, 3 and skip, Fred Linger, John Mercer and Brian Rance respectively, having to play out of their skins, which they did, just to keep up, but sadly the only sound coming from Brian’s bugle at the end of the game was the tune of surrender and the fluttering of the white flags, (well the hankies actually, where the men had to keep blowing their noses due to their man flu……………..did I mention how ill the men were?!).  As usual, the match was played in a very social spirit and there was plenty of laughter, (amongst the men’s tears), on all rinks and plenty of noise as well.  Also nice to see that the wrong biases were shared, between Jean Braithwaite and Dave Elliott.

The ladies also seemed to triumph in the usual triple F comps, (“fletcher financial fiddles”), run by the bloke who resembles an angle poise lamp!  Thus Irene Ashby won the heads / tails comp and John Langley was the runner up, whilst the scores and shots comps saw many winners, but the top spots in each went to Sheila Gutteridge, (both), Joan McClaughlin, Doreen Langley and Barry Tomlin.  The spider comp saw five winners, with Jim Green perhaps taking home the best prize of a Chrimbo pud and box of cornflakes.  Practical and healthy prizes………………now that is what we like to see!  The Lottery and Thunder Ball, (un)lucky dips as usual all drew a blank, so no change there then!

Thanks to Nicola, Adrian, Sam, Jade and Amy, for the lovely 3 course meal and coffee after the match and to Sue Smith and Babs Tomlin for doing the bar.

Kind regards – The Thin Man.

Pics courtesy John Mercer

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