Gerrards Cross Bowls Other Competitions

CTL, LSC, WDA, Mid Bucks

What are all these organisations?

With the increased number of members in 2017 and 2018, we needed more competitions to enter, particularly for bowlers below the level of County players. We were already in the Chiltern & Thames League, and we joined the London & Southern Counties, Mid Bucks League and Watford & District Association.

Chiltern & Thames League
We've been members of this organisation for many years. It runs a league of mixed triple matches, mostly played on weekday evenings with finals played on Sundays at the end of August and the middle of September.

Most of the players in this league are 'good club' rather than County players.

For many years we got to the finals but lost there, as they are played on the same day as the Bucks Cup, Trundell VI & Burnham Plate. In 2018 we finally managed a win, and we won again in 2019.

London & Southern Counties

L&SC are a prestigious organisation running similar competitions to the Nationals but no Top Club. Men only. Their web site is here.

The club nominates the entrants for each competition, and in 2018 most of those nominated were County players. For the singles competitions we nominate bowlers who have been successful in the Club Competitions.

We entered it for the first time in 2018, getting to the semi-finals in the singles and in the 'Challenge Shield' which is a two-fours.

Mid Bucks League

It's called 'League', but is actually a knockout competition between the clubs, using a format similar to the National Top Club - a four, a triple, a pair and a singles, but no two-wood singles.

We entered it for the first time in 2018. Our team contained a couple of County players (out of 10), but we got knocked out in the first round. In 2019 we made it to the third round.

Watford and District Association

We are joining this for the first time in 2019. It holds the same sort of competitions as the Nationals, but we expect the standard to be a little lower.

These are in addition to the Bucks Leagues

We are increasing the number of squads we enter for the Bucks leagues. In 2018 we ran four teams. The Erasers and Swans are both in division one of their respective 'areas', and both including a couple of County players in their squads of about nine players, and the Erasers ended up as the County League Champions. The Allsorts in division 2 had no County players, but were all pretty competent, and they played in division one in 2019.

The Rowers was new, and was formed with the intention of recruiting relatively inexperienced players into the leagues. The team played always included one good, experienced player to provide leadership and advice. It won its division in 2018, getting promoted to the next division up, so in 2019 we fielded a fifth team, the Pick & Mix, for players new to competitive bowling, led by an experienced player.

The Pick&Mix won their division in 2019, so in 2020 we will add a sixth team, "Maltmans", again for players new to competitive bowling, again led by an experienced player.