Indoors season cup competitions

The indoors bowling season is already well underway; and this season the Club is entering teams for three local cup competitions:

1. The Moreton Cup (matches played at Longmeadow, Whitchurch) - 2 teams (Andover Lions & Andover Eagles)

This is an open competition with no specification as to the composition of the teams. The full rules can be found here but essentially this year the Moreton Cup features four groups of four teams, with the quarter finals - due to take place in February and March 2025 - featuring the first placed and runner-up in each group. Matches are played at Longmeadow at 10am on Sundays, with practice ends kicking off at 0945. Two rinks of 18 ends are played in each game in the group stage, with two points for a winning rink and 0.5 points for a drawn rink, plus one further point awarded to the team with the highest number of shots. The Lions are matched with BTC, Littleton and Kingsclere; Eagles with Parkside, Winchester City and Oakley.

Fixtures and results

27 Oct: Parkside (1 point) 32 - 37 Andover Eagles (4 points)

3 Nov: Andover Lions (5 points) 62 - 19 BTC (0 points)

24 Nov: Andover Eagles (3 points) 34 - 29 Winchester City (2 points)

1 Dec: Andover Lions (5 points) 46 v 26 Littleton (0 points)

12 Jan: Andover Eagles (3 points) 40 v 32 Oakley (2 points)

19 Jan: Andover Lions (0 points) 22 v 35 Kingsclere (5 points)

Thus Eagles qualify for the quarter finals as group winners, joining Lions who are already there, with a 100% record - played 3, won 3 - for a total of 10 points and a shot difference of 111-93. Lions lost their final game against a very good Kingsclere, but qualify in second place with 10 points and a shot difference of 130-80 (actually, far superior to the results of Kingsclere). Congratulations everyone! Full results and fixtures for all the teams in the competition, plus all the league tables, can be viewed in the links at the bottom of the page.

Eagles will play their quarter-final on 23 February against the runners-up in Group 2 (most probably either Whitchurch or Old Basing who play each other on 2 February); Lions will play a week later on 2 March with a fixture against the winners of Group 4 (either Atherley or Eastleigh Red Devils; the final games in that group take place next Sunday (26 January)).

 

2. The Hamblin Trophy (matches played at Riverside, Winchester, with a 6.30 start time), in which Andover are the double defending champions

The Hamblin Trophy is a mixed competition, with each team (of four players) consisting of at least one man and one woman. There are two leagues in the Hamblin Trophy; the Club plays all the sides in our league (League B), with fixtures against Waterside, Lyndhurst, Littleton B, Alton Social, Hyde Abbey B and Winchester City. A finals day is scheduled for 16 March with the top sides in leagues A and B facing each other in the final with the two second placed teams battling it out for 3rd and 4th places.

Fixtures and results

17 Nov: Waterside (0 points) 25 - 49 Andover (2 points)

1 Dec: Andover (2 points) 46 - 29 Lyndhurst (0 points)

26 Jan: Littleton B v Andover

2 Feb: Alton Social v Andover

16 Feb: Hyde Abbey B v Andover

2 Mar: Winchester v Andover

The full fixture list can be found in the link at the bottom of the page.

 

3. The John Ash Trophy (matches played at Five Rivers, Salisbury; currently scheduled for 8/9 February)

Any Club member wishing to join in and play in any of these competitions should let Gordon Bazley, men's team captain, or Jackie Kingston, women's team captain, know via the usual routes.

Further progress will be reported on these pages while the dates of fixtures will be posted to the fixtures diary page.