Cambridgeshire Short Mat Bowls News story


Three Wood Pairs

24 May 2026

This years 3-wood pairs was held on a bank holiday weekend which may have affected entries as a total of just 14 teams played out the event.

Frustratingly more than one team mistakenly thought that they had entered believing the other partner had done this, reinforcing the point that teams/players need to check in advance that they are on the entrants list.

After some discussion it was decided to come up with a format requiring all teams to play all rounds. This meant play over five rounds on seven mats and due to restricted space we installed two mats on the temporary MIBC pickle ball courts.

Mat 4 laid out on the bottom end of the pickle ball courts for those who played on it proved a challenge, and for some inexplicable reason was virtually unplayable on the fire exit side.

Regardless we should all be able to play on any floor surface and a simple case of adjusting to the challenges accordingly.

All players did agree that it was an interesting exercise to have mats on two different surfaces and this will be something we will consider again going forward and during the summer months.

Interestingly not one team won all five matches and at times the standard was impressive and many games were very tight scores. There were a couple of draws as well which makes for close scoring.

I would like to express my thanks and gratitude to those members who continue to donate some excellent raffle prizes all of which contributes to the sale of more tickets and a greater return for association funds.

Maureen our raffle organiser was unavailable on the day but still made sure that we had the CSMBA prizes and tickets ready for the day. My particular thanks to Dawn, Margaret and Sharon who all helped to sell and organise the raffle on the day.

The chairman presented prizes to the top placed three teams.

The final scores were recorded as follows:

1st Team 10 : David Wilcox & Roly Fincham, 8 points with S/D of + 26

2nd Team 8 : Linda White & Joe Peters, 8 points with S/D of + 11

3rd Team 7 : Jayne Thorpe & Billy Chapman, 7 points with S/D of +44.

Following all deductions the day recorded an income over expenditure of £75.42.

The next confirmed competitions are Sunday 28th June (4 wood pairs) and Sunday 19th July (Mixed Aussie Pairs).

David Wilcox : Interim Competitions Secretary