John Ash Trophy 2026 - Andover valiant runners-up

If it's the first weekend in February, it must be the John Ash Trophy - and a team of ten from Andover headed for Salisbury this weekend to represent Andover Bowling Club and to defend the title that we won in 2025.

The competition last year was hard-fought - you can catch up with our report on the weekend here - and we are expecting no less this year. 2025 was the first time we had won this Trophy since 2006 and it is a tough weekend of bowling - qualification takes place on the Saturday, with matches taking place for Andover this year at 10.30, 13.30, 16.00 and 18.00 (each match of ten ends). With a terrific set of results in qualifying - see our separate page for the indoors season and in the semi-final, against Wilton at 1030 on Sunday (again over 10 ends), the team faced Salisbury in the final at 2pm.(over 18 ends). Salisbury had a similar record to us in qualifying but we topped the table by virtue of a better shot difference (and also we scored more shots). Salisbury proved a tough opponent in the final, however, and despite making a stout defence of our Trophy, we were ultimately unable to overcome them, Salisbury winning by 39-28 across the two rinks. Congratulations to them - and well-played to all our team who put up a valiant effort, and to the players of all the other sides who entered the competition.

The picture below shows our team during the weekend: from left to right, Les Reeves; Jackie Kingston; Steve Baker; Dave Clipsom; Gordon Bazley; Robin Kingston; Sue Milton; and Mick Corden. Missing from the photo, but also a key member of the team over the weekend, was Elainne Piper.

Note: this release was updated on Sunday evening to reflect the Saturday games and the outcome of the semi-final and final.