Holt Bowls Club News Articles

National Finals Update

Wayne Simmonds — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 20:37:09 +0100

It wasn't to be for our lads at this year's Bowls England national finals, however the guys representing the club all played their part in the club's success this year and were unlucky not to progress further in the events.

Holt players Malc Clift, Dave Stevens, Malcolm Barker and Graham Archard, who were in the over 55's senior fours, won their first game 19-18 against Lincolnshire, however a second round defeat to eventual runners-up Bedfordshire, brought their finals to a close.

The four of Dane Rose, Wayne Simmonds, Wayne Snook and Ben Gadd were defeated in the first round, 15-18, against Hertfordshire, however being 12-2 down at the mid-point, they did well to comeback, with the result of the game in the balance right until the end.

Wayne Snook, who was playing in both mens singles events, lost to Devon's Aaron Southgate in the first round of the four-bowl singles, 13-21. He did however, win his first round match in the two-bowl singles event, picking up a 14-9 win against Sussex's Michael Stone but was narrowly defeated in the second round 11-14, against Rodney Morrison from Surrey.

Holt 'on tour' at the National Finals

Wayne Simmonds — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 11:38:03 +0100

Holt will be well represented at this year's Bowls England National Finals following success in the Bowls Wiltshire county level competitions. The National finals will commence at Leamington Spa from Thursday 19th August, ending on September 5th.

Wayne Snook was the first club member to book his Leamington space in both the four-bowl and two-bowl singles events following his qualification to the county final of both competitions. Unfortunately, Wayne was defeated in both finals, although he was able to pull off wins against some high quality opponents on route to the finals (notably in the two-bowl event which was played in one day at Devizes Bowls Club).

Runner-up in both county singles events has again cemented Wayne's position as one of the best singles players in Wiltshire, further backing up his county two-bowl title in 2019 and his runner-up place in the four-bowl county final in 2018. Wayne will be playing his four-bowl singles on Friday 20th August and his two-bowl singles on Tuesday 31st August.

Following his success in the singles events, Wayne has also booked his place at the nationals with a place in the fours, alongside long-term playing partners Wayne Simmonds and Ben Gadd. The trio, winning their third county fours title in seven years, were this year partnered with Holt bowler Dane Rose, who will now be making his first appearance at the national finals.

The four pulled off a remarkable comeback in their county fours final against a rink from Chippenham Town Bowls Club, when trailing 7-15, with only three ends remaining. The four picked up ten shots in the last three ends to achieve the win and secure the county title. The four will be playing their fist round match at Leamington on Thursday 26th August.

Holt will also be represented at the national finals in the senior 'over 55's' fours competition, the first time anybody from Holt has qualified in the event, first initiated in 2017. Holt players Malc Clift, Dave Stevens, Malcolm Barker and Graham Archard, who are all qualifying for the finals for the first time, pulled off another great comeback against another Chippenham Town four.

Trailing 9-11 with two ends to go, the Holt four picked up four shots over the last two ends to take the title, a first county title for Clift, Stevens and Archard. The four will be playing their first round match at Leamington on Friday 27th August.

This weeks selected teams

Wayne Simmonds — Wed, 26 May 2021 09:14:44 +0100

Tonight we host Westlecot B.C in a three rink friendly, the first of our 'home and away' matches with the club. We have been in good form recently so we'll be looking to continue that, although a strong Westlecot side will be tough to beat.

3 Rink Friendly, home against Westlecot on Wednesday 26th May

Holt v Westlecot\| Start time : 6.30pm
	Lead	Two	Three	Skip
Rink 1	D. Rose	C. Poole	C. Moore	W. Simmonds
Rink 2	R. Summers	H. Davis	T. Keating	J. Davis
Rink 3	M. Clift	M. Barker	M. Oliver	K. Oliver
Reserves
Captain	R. Summers

Our second fixture this week see's the return of the Mid-Wilts Triples league, following our week off last week. We take on Avon A at home in our fourth league match of the season and we'll be looking to build on our run of two straight wins, following our opening game defeat to Trowbridge West Eagles.

Mid-Wilts Triples League, home against Avon A on Thursday 27th May

Holt v Avon A \| Start time : 6.15pm
	Lead	Two	Skip
Rink 1	R. Glennie	D. Griffin	M. Barker
Rink 2	N. Mann	K. Oliver	T. Riccio
Rink 3	S. Benson	R. Summers	C. Moore
Reserves
Captain	G. Archard

Holt on a winning streak

Wayne Simmonds — Wed, 26 May 2021 08:59:20 +0100

Our recent winning streak has continued this week with a string of three wins against Chippenham Town, Salisbury and Trowbridge Town. We welcomed Chippenham Town to Holt on Tuesday evening in the first of our 'home and away' friendly matches with them.

In what was a tight game across two of the rinks, a 21 shot winning margin on the rink skipped by Wayne Snook proved the decisive result to give us a 64-46 win overall.

Rink Scores

M. Clift, D. Stevens, C. Moore and W. Simmonds drew 14-14 against J. Haselton

D. Rose, S. Hall, T. Riccio and W. Snook won 30-9 against N. Connor

R. Summers, D. Anderson, M. Oliver and K. Oliver lost 20-23 against W. Jones

The second of our back-to-back three rink games in the week saw us take on Salisbury B.C in the reverse fixture from the previous week. Following our 67-38 away win, Salisbury again fielded a strong side including both Wiltshire and Dorset Middleton cup players and were looking to reverse their fortunes and pick up the win. However a strong performance from the Holt guys proved too much and we ran out with a commanding 33 shot win, winning on all three rinks.

Rink Scores

R. Summers, M. Clift, C. Moore and K. Oliver won 21-15 against T. Warner

D. Rose, D. Griffin, M. Barker and W. Simmonds won 23-10 against N. Revell

G. Potton, T. Riccio, T. Keating and W. Snook won 25-11 against J. Reynolds

Our third win in a row came in the Mid-Wilts Triples cup, a newly formed knockout competition this year, for teams in the Mid-Wilts triples league. Our first of two round robin matches was played yesterday evening, away against Trowbridge Town B.C. We managed to come away with an eight shot win overall, although losing on two of the three rinks. It was great to see some of our new bowlers taking part in this game and picking up valuable experience so well done to everyone involved.

Rink Scores

P. Barton, G. Potton and M. Clift lost 11-12 against C. Joliff

B. Nash, S. Hall and G. Archard won 26-4 against R. Francis

P. Leverington, D. Anderson and D. Stevens lost 14-27 against F. Maxwell

Selected teams for Chippenham Town and Salisbury matches

Wayne Simmonds — Sun, 16 May 2021 21:46:54 +0100

Teams for our upcoming matches this week have been selected and are as follows. Our run of friendly games continue in the absense of any official Wiltshire bowls league games. First we welcome Chippenham Town to Holt for the first time this season with the reverse fixture coming later this month. The second of our games this week is against Salisbury in the reverse of our game last week where we were able to go away and win on all rinks.

3 Rink Friendly, home against Chippenham Town on Tuesday 18th May

Holt v Chippenham Town\| Start time : 6.15pm
	Lead	Two	Three	Skip
Rink 1	M. Clift	D. Stevens	C. Moore	W. Simmonds
Rink 2	R. Summers	D. Anderson	M. Oliver	K. Oliver
Rink 3	D. Rose	H. Davis	T. Riccio	W. Snook
Reserves
Captain	W. Snook

3 Rink Friendly, home against Salisbury on Wednesday 19th May

Holt v Salisbury \| Start time : 6.15pm
	Lead	Two	Three	Skip
Rink 1	D. Rose	D. Griffin	M. Barker	W. Simmonds
Rink 2	R. Summers	M. Clift	C. Moore	K. Oliver
Rink 3	G. Potton	T. Riccio	C. Poole	W. Snook
Reserves
Captain	W. Snook

Promising start to MWT league season

Wayne Simmonds — Sun, 16 May 2021 21:36:37 +0100

Following the disappointing start to our Mid-Wilts Triples league season, with the 10-2 loss away at Trowbridge West Eagles, our team have turned that around with two back-to-back wins against North Wilts A and Blue Circle. The two wins see us move up to second in the league, although it is still early days, it's an encouraging start.

We recovered well from the opening game defeat to take down North Wilts A 10-2 in our first home game of the season, with a 69-45 shot win. The game also marked the debuts for new members Ried Glennie and Paul Barton

Rink Scores v North Wilts A

R. Glennie, T. Keating and T. Riccio won 26-10 against R. Read

B. Nash, M. Clift and W.Simmonds won 30-8 against B. Roberts-Phare

P. Barton, H. Davis and D. Stevens lost 13-27 against P. Bent

7 days later the team backed up the North Wilts win with an impressive 12-0 away win at Blue Circle (58-33 on shots) to move us up to second in the table.

Rink Scores v Blue Circle

B. Nash, S. Hall and M. Barker won 20-12

G. Potton, K. Oliver and D. Stevens won 21-6

R. Glennie, D. Anderson and T. Keating won 17-15

Win for Holt away to Salisbury

Wayne Simmonds — Thu, 13 May 2021 21:40:27 +0100

We came away with a win across all 3 rinks last night in our first away friendly match of the season, against Salisbury Bowls Club. It fairly unpleasant conditions, the team managed to win convincingly across all rinks with an overall 67-38 shot score line.

Thanks to Salisbury for accepting the game and for the great hospitality. Lots of laughs, a few beers and a competitive game as always. We welcome Salisbury to Holt next Wednesday (19th) in the reverse fixture.

Rink Scores

Rodney Summers, Dave Stevens, Chris Moore and Kevin Oliver won 26-15 against F. Boynton

Malc Clift, Tino Riccio, Matt Tucker and Justin Davis won 19-12 against T. Warner

Brian Nash, Chris Poole, Wayne Simmonds and Wayne Snook won 22-11 against N.Revell

Teams Selected for Salisbury, Blue Circle and RWB Matches

Wayne Simmonds — Tue, 11 May 2021 22:04:48 +0100

Teams for our upcoming matches this week have been selected and are as follows. Our run of friendly games continue in the absense of any official Wiltshire bowls league games and our Mid-Wilts triples team play their third match of the season, looking to continue winning ways following last week's win over North Wilts A.

3 Rink Friendly, away against Salisbury

Holt v Salisbury \| Start time : 6.15pm
	Lead	Two	Three	Skip
Rink 1	M. Clift	T. Riccio	M. Tucker	J. Davis
Rink 2	R. Summers	D. Stevens	C. Moore	K. Oliver
Rink 3	B. Nash	C. Poole	W. Simmonds	W. Snook
Reserves
Captain	W. Snook

Mid-Wilts Triples league, away against Blue Circle

Holt v Blue Circle \| Start time : 6.15pm
	Lead	Two	Skip
Rink 1	B. Nash	S. Hall	M. Barker
Rink 2	G. Potton	K. Oliver	D. Stevens
Rink 3	R. Glennie	D. Anderson	T. Keating
Reserves
Captain	G. Archard

3 Rink Friendly, away against Royal Wootton Bassett

Holt v Royal Wootton Bassett \| Start time : 10.30am
	Lead	Two	Three	Skip
Rink 1	M. Barker	T. Riccio	G. Archard	C. Moore
Rink 2	R. Summers	B. Nash	M. Oliver	K. Oliver
Rink 3	D. Griffin	D. Anderson	M. Tucker	W. Snook
Reserves
Captain	W. Snook

Upcoming Friendly Matches Announced

Wayne Simmonds — Mon, 10 May 2021 21:20:06 +0100

We are delighted to announce that we have secured a number of exciting home and away matches in the coming weeks. Following the published step one and two guidance, our county association took the difficult decision to put a stop to all four rink and three rink league fixtures until July. This meant that as a club we only had one guaranteed match per week and only one home match in two weeks. This simply was not enough to keep our club going, as we massively rely on income taken at home matches via our bar facilities.

With the potential for this to leave us with very little choice other than to close, our management committee made the decision to reach out to other clubs in a similar position and arrange 'friendly' matches, under the sanctions of Bowls England's 'Return to play' guidance.

From this, we have now secured dates for the remaining matches to take us up to the start of July when we hope normal scheduling will continue. We would like to say a massive thank you to the clubs we have arranged matches with, for their support.

Wednesday 12th May v Salisbury B.C (Away)
Sunday 16th May v Royal Wootton Bassett B.C (Away)
Tuesday 18th May v Chippenham Town B.C (Home)
Wednesday 19th May v Salisbury B.C (Home)
Wednesday 26th May v Westlecot B.C (Home)
Wednesday 2nd June v Chippenham Town B.C (Away)
Saturday 5th June v Amesbury B.C (Home)
Wednesday 9th June v Westlecot B.C (Away)
Wednesday 16th June v Avon B.C (Away)
Saturday 26th June v Amesbury B.C (Away)

Bowls England Update - Return to play: Step three

Wayne Simmonds — Mon, 10 May 2021 20:34:16 +0100

Following the confirmation from the Prime Minister regarding the further easing of restrictions, our governing body Bowls England, have released further guidance for affiliated clubs to help continue the safe return to the sport, supplementing the government guidance on organised sport. Monday 17th May is the date that England enter step 3 of the roadmap to the easing of lockdown restrictions.

The main headlines are:

All restrictions on formats and numbers for organised activity under the jurisdiction of Bowls England will be removed.
Car sharing will be permitted.
Indoor hospitality can resume.
Spectators can return.

The official 'Return to play: Step three' guidance can be viewed here, while more details also available on the Bowls England website here