DAVE HOOD RUNS HIS OWN SPECIAL OLYMPICS
On Sat 17th Sept 2016, 42 PARIBC members turned out to compete in a 14 team triples format, for the inaugural Summer Tournament Shield. This new competition, open to all, has been the brain child of Dave Hood, to round off the summer season. He organised the whole event and even paid for the new winners shield, out of his own pocket. So well done to the big man! He also stood down on the day, not to play, so that he could concentrate on running the event.
Thus, this summer tournament competition, to be played for each year, at the end of the summer season, shall be named in his honour
and the trophy to be played for shall henceforth be known as the “HSBC”, i.e. not the bank, but the “Hood Shield (for) Bowls (and) Casseroles”!
The early start meant many a bleary eyed member turned up to firstly be fleeced out of money, (as always, all in a good cause folks!), by a certain member who is better known as “PITA”, (“Pain In The Ar*e”!) and secondly they were all left confused and dazed by trying to work out the playing format for the day, posted on the sheets on the wall. Organizer, Dave Hood’s matrix of teams and matches to be played was a work of art, but nobody could understand it. And then when he started filling in the scores in the boxes, after round 1, it resembled the biggest ever Sudoku puzzle so far seen! By the end, I think that even Dave had lost it, because he just resorted to colouring in the boxes! As such, the sheets have now been sent off to both M.I.5 and the WW11 code breakers from Bletchley Park, for them to try and crack and decipher “The Hood’s” codes. Good luck with that one guys!
A mini round robin format meant there were 3 rounds of 5 ends, leading to the top 4 teams playing off to be eventual champions and for the gold, silver and bronze medal places and contrary to popular belief, for all team selections, all players were pulled out of a hat at random to make up the teams and then the playing order was also decided by a random draw, to avoid accusations of loaded teams and fixes.
The match for gold and silver saw the team of Pat Gunn, Cyril Baldwin and Vic Ashby take on the team of Maureen Osborne, Jim Masters and Tom Heward, with the former running out victorious in a one sided game. So well done to Vic and his team for being the first name(s) on the new trophy. From their play all day, they fully deserved to be winners and despite their 3 different bowling styles and techniques, they seemed to gel on the day, to play very well as a team. The match for bronze saw the team of Bryan Allen, Dave Sutherland and Barry Tomlin defeat the team of Tony Jewell, Jean Lacey and Charlie Wells in a more closer affair. The wooden spoon went to the team skipped by the current PARIBC ladies champ, Patricia Wells, who managed to unfortunately lead her long suffering team mates, who have our sympathy, (Trevor Bright and Bernie Mercer), to gaining only 3, yes just 3 shots in total, all day, from the 3 games played.
From the amount of noise and good humoured banter, both on and off the green, the day was a success and hopefully enjoyed by all. Equally the day brought in some welcome dosh to the PARIBC coffers, on what would otherwise have been a blank day and the club closed. Well done again to Dave Hood on all his efforts in running the day and many thanks also to Dot and Dave Elliott for the fine buffet spread they laid on for lunch and thanks to Dot Elliott and Babs Tomlin for doing the bar.
Kind regards, “PITA”.
Ed: The following pics are courtesy of Dave Hood.
Page Last Updated on 15th Mar 2021