TLH National Top Club 2008 (or what Dru did…)
Written by Terri on 6th October 2008What can I say about the TLH National Top Club? Excellent weekend. The finalists being the top 8 clubs from around the country come to Torquay to play in the finals 
on the weekend of 13th and 14th September and I was honoured to be asked to mark some singles over the weekend.
The teams play 3 games to determine places from the winners, through to 8th place and everyone, yes everyone gets a prize.
With the four disciplines of singles, pairs, triples and rinks all playing at the same time it can be nail bitingly close, and the Competition was closely fought.
TLH presents beautiful glassware for each team, a memorial TLH/Bowls England badge and each player and every team takes prize money home to their clubs.
It’s a grand occasion with the Executive of Bowls England organising the whole event.
This years results:-
The Winners were Oxford City and County BC with International player, Catherine Hawes on the side. Brilliant bowling all across the team.
2nd Sutton BC (Surrey)
3rd Blackwell BC (Derbyshire) no strangers to this event and with International Jean Baker on the team were winners in 2004 and 2005,
4th Consett BC (Durham) who were winners in 2006
5th Box BC (Wiltshire)
6th Portishead Royal British Legion BC
7th Saffron Ladies BC (Essex)
8th Whittlsey Manor BC
bet you thought it would never happen to you…………
Just imagine… you are a newly qualified marker and you have been asked to mark the singles at the TLH National Women’s Top Club. What an honour, to be part of the big game, the march on, and the finale.
You are understandably nervous as this is the first major competition you have marked, and to make matters worse, the Chairman of the English Woman’s Umpires Association (everyone knows Mavis Wellington) is the official umpire on the very green on which you are marking.
It’s the usual questions about who is holding shot and how far are they from the jack etc, you are and making a neat job of the score card, keeping the score board up to date and generally being a great marker, full of pride in a job being well done when…….
a great big golden Labrador lumbers on the rink and makes a bee line for the jack. Noooooooooooo!!! You are standing 2 meters behind the head and you have never moved so fast in you life. Leaping forward to keep anything in the head from being moved, you place one hand on the jack and the other on the shot bowl. No mean feat seeing as they are a couple of feet apart. On one leg you balance, whilst trying to push the dog away with the other foot. Talk about a contortionist. Then things take a turn for the worse…… can it get worse you say. The owner of the dog totters on to the green in stiletto heels, Noooooooooo!!!, she grabs the dog and starts to drag it off the green. You are now trying to see what is happening to the rest of the bowls, but the dog does not want to leave and tries even harder to prise the jack from your grasp. The players are looking on in horror; you are mentally wondering what rules will apply to the ‘end’ if anything gets moved. Suddenly the dog realises that he’s on a loser and retreats with the lady. You look nervously about, thankfully nothing has moved and you chance to glance at the umpire to see if she may, by some chance, have been looking in the other direction during this circus. But no, you are not that lucky. Actually she is bending over, holding her knees, howling with laughter, tears running down her cheeks, she says “Kennard, you are the fastest thing I’ve ever seen over 2 meters ” and starts to howl with laughter again. The players ask if everything is OK and you say it is. Shaky isn’t the word, however the players complete the end – only 3 bowls left to play in the game. Normality seems to be restored but you are a broken marker.
That’s what happened in 2007 when I was marking …
I am happy to report that no such traumas were experienced this year by any of the Markers.
