"Nuked" by Newark

Ken White (pictured as he used to look forty years ago) has been playing bowls for as long as he can remember, as long ago as when he remembers he first saw the Flying Scotsman, and every other of the steam trains that became household names to him and the other millions of train spotting fanatics who still travel the length and breadth of the country with their, which now must be nearly in tatters, Ian Allen train spotting books.

Ask Ken, known to his friends as “Choo, choo”, any questions about trains going back to the year dot, and he remembers the all the answers. But when skipping a game of bowls, his mind goes completely blank when it comes to filling in the scorecard. “What scorecard?” he asked at the end of our latest friendly against Newark. Maybe his excuse was not having a pen, which came to him after he’d had his second helping of bangers and mash.

What about the match? Well our best rink was again skipped by Dave (the deadly) Cave, assisted on this occasion by his wife Linda, and our captain Maggie Holden. She knows who to pick to play with. They finished with a creditable 19-6 win. Our other winning rink was the now becoming established trio of Reg Goode, Serena Brunning and Jill Goode who scraped home 19-18.

The overall score was 105-80 against and the rink scores were (apart from one which we won’t mention again, oh yes we will). Valerie Shackleton, Carolyn Gray, Peter Gray lost 8-26; Reg Goode, Serena Brunning, Jill Goode won 19-18; Judith Childs, Janet Benns, Adrian Childs lost 7-21; Margaret Grainger, Bob Oliver, Howard Neath lost 10-15; Linda Cave, Maggie Holden, Derek Cave won 19-6; Denis Stapleton, Ken Rawlins, Ken White lost 17-19.

Next match is away at Boston on Saturday 23rd of this month. As we speak Maggie needs four more players. If you can play please enter you name on the team sheet on the notice board opposite the bar.

D.S.