An enjoyable day at Ladywell's Spoons bowls competition

The winning team: (l-r) Susan Levene, Norman Lewis, Terrie Askew

Saturday 5th September was the date for Ladywell's annual Spoons competition, a small bowls triples tournament that's been held for club members for many years. The competition name refers to the trophies awarded to the winning team, which were originally highly decorated spoons. Today's trophies are no longer spoons, but they still feature spoons prominently.

An original Ladywell Spoons trophy

The competition format involves teams of triples, selected at random, who all play each other over short matches. The winning team is decided on points difference. So, if a team wins a match by one shot, their score is +1, and their opponents score -1. The team with the biggest plus score after all the matches is the winner.

The 2026 competition featured four teams, who each played their three opponents over matches of six ends.

The first set of matches were very close, with just one shot deciding the winners on both rinks. Team D of Norman Lewis, Terrie Askew and Susan Levene, and Team B of Phil Welch, George Witter and Jason Stone both took an early lead on +1.

Spoons trophy awarded to this year's winners

The second set of matches saw the two leading teams paired against each other. And it was Team D who came out on top, winning 6-3 to move ahead, with a score of +4. The other match saw Team A of Adrian Wratten, Sally Bryan and Kevin Pinto beat Team C, Ian Bradford, Merlin Ramdawar and Alvin Nelson by a single point.

This meant going into the final round of matches after tea, Team D only needed to win to take overall victory, as long as the other match between Team B and Team C was a close one. Unfortunately, Sally Bryan had to pull out of the final round of matches, as she had aggravated a wrist injury. So, Adrian and Kevin each played four woods for Team A in their final match, while Susan only played two for Team D.

In their last match, Team B beat Team C by 7 shots to 3, giving Team B an overall score of +2 and Team C an overall score of -6. But in the other match, Team D proved too strong for the team of two, winning 14-5, to give them an overall score of +13, while Team A finished on a score of -9.

At the end of an enjoyable day, the winning team of Norman Lewis, Terrie Askew and Susan Levene received their trophies from Club Captain, Phil Welch.