The Club holds its own competitions and hosts a range of Regional, Open, Charity and  Fun events in the course of a year.

During the 2007/08 season we hosted semi-finals & finals of "The Presidents Cup".  In 2008/2009 we will be hosting the major Championship on the coast the Winter Championships together with the Costa del Sol Men's & Ladies' Singles Champion of Champions.

The Club normally holds one Major Championship each year known as "The Miraflores Open" but 2008/09 will see a variation in that a 2nd Open Competition will be held in February. Click on the link above for information about this year's competition.

The palm trees being tidied up in preparation for the Open

Among the less competitive events that we hold annually are the Valentines Day and the Mothering Sunday Ladies v Gents match (where the men get to do the washing up and the ladies seem to invariably win!). As a special for 2008 we held a Leap Year competition on 29th February, this was a "Pairs Ladies Invitation Event" which was run as a round robin event.

The Handicap singles competition took place in early December 2008. Doreen  Macdonald is really on a high with her singles game at the moment and beat Marie Hurst 21-9 in the final. The Handicap committee had  judged the handicaps well, as many of the matches during the week were very close. Marie Hurst had played very well all week, but the final was  a little disappointing as she was not at her best, so Doreen came away with her second Singles title of the year.

Handicap singles finalists (From L to R): Doreen Macdonald (winner) & Marie Hurst (Runner-up).
 
Before the match  Derek Shemmings had presented the Fuengirola Scout Troop and Mary May on behalf of the Los Claveles Scanner Charity with cheques for 1,000 Euros each which was money raised by our charity over the past months.   Thanks are due to the many people who contributed, and the prizes included  a dinner for two at Miraflores Golf, The Ham presented by McKennas the butcher, Lon Morris for a Lovely fruit cake which entrants had to guess the weight.    A Lotto draw each week and the guess the shrapnel in the tin which amounted to 127.36 Euros.

Fuengirola Scouts & Mary (Los Clavales) receive their cheques
 
The Scout troop is spending the money to help with the expenses for attending the 2011 Jamboree in Sweden where they will meet Scouts from all over the world. Mary tells us that construction of the building has started at the Costa del Sol Hospital to house the new unit and we are proud to be able to help in this venture. After the presentations the scouts stayed to try out a few ends of bowls so maybe we have seen the first steps of a future champion!
 

The end of October 2008 saw the finals of the first event of the season in the club calendar, namely the Men's and Ladies' 2-wood singles. The Men's event saw Reg Dale beat Brian Hurst, Reg took an early lead and although the match evened out Brian could not recover the deficit. Reg eventually won 21-10 This win gave Reg a remarkable 5th win in this event in the last 15 years. The Ladies' final saw Doreen McDonald up against Pam Shemmings after an even start Doreen pulled away and looked like being a comfortable winner, but Pam fought back eventually losing 21-18, thereby giving Doreen her 2nd ever club title.

Brian & Reg Pam & Doreen

Unfortunately, the Annual Valentines Day competition took place in rather cold, gloomy and windy conditions although the weather improved as the day wore on. The format this year was slightly different to previous years in that it was of a 3-wood pairs event but played in groups of 8 on each rink. Each couple played with and against the other couples in their group over 6 ends and then all moved on to different rinks to play against different pairings. There were 4 sets of six ends played with pairs recording their individual scores as the day wore on. Despite some early confusion things ran smoothly in the end. The winners were decided through a 3 end play-off between the 2 pairs with the highest shot difference over the day. The play-off was between Harry Ronald & Sybil Ferguson and Jack & Brenda Davidson. Jack & Brenda won the first end, the second was won by Harry & Sybil after a measure and the deciding end was won by Harry & Sybil after yet another measure!! An exciting end to a fun day.

Valentines Day finalists (From L to R): Jack & Brenda (Runners-Up) & Harry & Sybil (Winners) with their prizes of porcelain red roses for the ladies and something stronger for the men!

The first week in February 2008 witnessed the staging of the Club's premier competitions, the Men's and Ladies' singles. A good entry in both categories saw some interesting matches and some surprise results along the way. The final qualifiers consisted pretty much of "the usual suspects!" with Brenda Davidson and Lynda Hall facing each other in the Ladies' final, while Reg Dale and Michael Bone were paired in the Men's final. The Men's final was a rather one-sided affair with Reg (who had swept away all opposition throughout the week comfortably beating Michael. The Ladies' match was a more closely contested affair with Brenda winning out over Lynda.

  Reg & Michael

Lynda & Brenda

The last week in January 2008 saw the Club Drawn Pairs competition. This event which attracted a good entry from the members bore a number of similarities with the Triples event held earlier in the month. Firstly the weather was glorious, reminiscent of May, with temperatures in the mid-20's (centigrade that is! Unlike the Fahrenheit that the UK were experiencing at the same time!). Secondly, by the time we reached the semi-final stage all of the remaining pairings contained a team member who had never previously won a competition at the Club. The final was eventually contested between the pairs of Derek Shemmings & Ron Pollard and that of Lynda Hall & John McCormack. Lynda & John eventually ran out comfortable winners despite the match being fairly even for the first dozen ends.

Pairs winners (From L to R): John McCormack & Lynda Hall.

Runner's-up (From L to R): Derek Shemmings & Ron Pollard.

In the beginning of January 2008 we held the Club Drawn Triples competition. The final, which was played out in glorious sunshine after an unsettled few days, was contested between the triples of Dorothy Sutcliffe, Brian Hurst & Bill Mann and that of Reg Dale, Wendy Bannell & Pat Pollard, which meant that whatever the outcome there would be at least one new name on the honours board! Reg had recorded some heavy wins on his way to the final and it came as something of a surprise when Dorothy and her team stormed to an 11-1 lead. Reg and his team then started to claw their way back, but Dorothy, Brian & Bill held their nerve to run out 15-13 winners. This means there will be 2 new names on the board as neither Dorothy (surprisingly) nor Bill a relatively new bowler had been victorious before.

The winners (from L to R): Brian, Dorothy & Bill

The Runner's-up (From L to R): Pat, Reg & Wendy

The 1st week of March 2007 saw the second running of a new club competition which was named "The 2's". It is a singles competition but in a format not previously seen anywhere else that we are aware of. Matches are on a timed basis of an hour and a half, but the factor that makes it different is that only scores of 2 or more shots in an end count towards the total, the idea being that only consistent bowling is rewarded. If scores are level at the end of the time, then a sudden death extra end is played. The competition saw a mixture of close fought matches and some very lopsided ones, but all were agreed that it was an excellent format, worthy of repeating. The final was contested between Derek & Pam Shemmings who had both had excellent seasons, on this occasion Derek was a comfortable winner, but had to buy dinner for the runner-up as a result!!!

Pam & Derek

For information on other clubs and events in Spain visit www.bowlinginspain.com