DEVIZES Bowls Club continued its centenary celebrations last Thursday with a special match against the Barbarians Bowls Association.

The visiting Barbarians BA was formed in Wales in 1963 and membership of the association is by invitation only and comprises mostly of bowls administrators who have given up their time for the benefit of the sport of bowls and those who have achieved honours as a result of their playing ability, hence its motto “To Honour High Achievement in Bowls”.

Primarily the Association accepts invitations to play clubs who are celebrating a chapter in their history.

Several men from Wiltshire such as Westlecot’s Reg Jackson, an ex-Welsh international is a member as is Calne’s George Henderson and former presidents of the Baa Baas association. Both played in this celebration match in a rink along with fellow county players Dave Richards and Hedley Bowen.

Devizes fielding a mixed team found the going tough against the all-male Barbarians side only winning on two rinks and drawing on another but losing heavily on the other three.

The hosts went down by 27 shots as they were beaten 124-97.

Top rink honours for Devizes went to skips Marguerite Alexander (12 shots) and Trefor Jones (five shots) while Dave Reeves managed a 19-19 draw courtesy of four shots on the 20th and penultimate end.

Devizes only trailed overall 33-24 after five ends but that had increased to 66-47 at halfway (11 ends). From then on they were playing catch-up with the gap increasing to 100-82 after 18 ends and finally losing 124-97.

“This was another most enjoyable event befitting the centenary occasion,” said Devizes official Gerald Webb.

The next special game was scheduled for this Wednesday – a nine rink match against Friends of English Bowling.

RESULTS

Rink 1: Michael Alexander, Sue Reeves, Tom Mullins & Wendy Gaisford lost to Andrew Goodwin 10-28. Rink 2: Bryan Reeves, Eleanor Mahoney, Terry Miles & Gerald Webb lost to Gareth Humphreys MBE 13-22. Rink 3: Nicola Sage, Sheila Turner, Chris Merrifield & Dave Greenwood lost to Dave Holloway 11-28. Rink 4: Ellen Stiles, Alison Cross, Ken Surman & Dave Reeves drew with Reg Birmingham 19-19. Rink 5: John Scoffield, Keith Scrannage, Dave Keen & Trefor Jones beat Reg Jackson, George Henderson, Dave Richards & Hedley Bowen (all from Wiltshire clubs) 21-16. Rink 6: Pat Miller, Phil Coombes, Sue Long & Marguerite Alexander beat Noel Tippett 23-11.

Score: Devizes lost to Barbarians BA 97-124.