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 v Oakley
19 Jan: Andover Lions v Kingsclere
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. With the next games for both Lions and Eagles not until 2025, the tables make excellent pre-Christmas viewing!
2. The Hamblin Trophy (matches played at Riverside, Winchester, with a 6.30 start time), in which Andover are the 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 February 2025)
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.