It’s been a very good time for the Ladies of Horsham Park.

The club’s annual Ladies v Gents match was once again a triumph for the Ladies. They then won through to the semi-final of the county level Gladys Roland Trophy, while they have remained clearly top of their division in the Nellie Mercer League.

In the club’s Ladies v Gents match they won on 2 rinks, drew the third. The winning score was 44-20. In their best game, ladies were led by Bryony Wood, who with Pauline Topper, Barbara Rowe, and Marie Davies played David Peters, Robin Merritt and Ian Holmes.

The ladies were 7-0 up after 3 ends but the gents took a 4 on the next end to close the gap to 7-4 but this was the gents last and only decent end. They could only win 2 more ends and the ladies continued to score well to win by 14 shots, 20-6.

Horsham Park's Ladies celebrate their victory in the club's annual competition.

placeholder image — Horsham Park's Ladies celebrate their victory in the club's annual competition.

The weather was still extremely hot, but the high cloud saved the bowlers from the direct sunlight when the Horsham Park Ladies took on the Crouch Ladies in the quarter finals of the Gladys Roland Knock Out Competition last Wednesday.

Crouch, from Seaford, are a large club with over 100 members. The game started at 11am and went through to 2pm with a five-minute break at 10 ends because of the heat.

Once again, our ladies triumphed with on another big win by 17 shots, 28-11.. The team of Bryony Wood, Lorena Daane, Pam Venn and Beryl Noble had a poor start and after only 3 ends they were down 5-0 but from then on, they hardly put a foot wrong.

Park’s lead, Beryl Noble, playing tactically, maintained the momentum by putting up long jacks which some of the Crouch bowlers struggled to get to accurately and by the 12th end Park were ahead 18-6. The Crouch bowlers had only 2 more winning ends and at end 19, when it became obvious that they could not close the gap as they needed 17 shots from the last 2 ends, they conceded the game.

Then Park’s men posted their first win in the penultimate Border League game of the season, against Newdigate.

In spite of the weather the teams played the full 18 ends and, for a change, the Park bowlers won 50-40 taking 8 of the 10 points available. They won on 2 rinks and lost the third.

This win overturned the loss earlier in the season when Park played the Newdigate bowlers at home.