A Newcomers Guide to Competitions outside the Club.

Any man from Brentwood Bowling Club who fancies his chance can enter one or more of a variety of competitions, ranging from Brentwood District competitions to National competitions. Competitions exist for Singles, Pairs, Triples, Rinks, Double Fours and doubtless other formats as yet undiscovered by the writer.

Assuming that no-one has asked you to join them in any of the multi-person competitions then I assume that you are interested in Singles Competitions. The list of obvious singles competitions, then, is as follows;

  • Brentwood and District Singles
  • Romford and District Singles
  • Group 4 Singles
  • County Singles
  • County Unbadged Singles (every competitor shall be unbadged on the day when the competitions draw is made).
  • County Benevolent Singles
  • County Secretaries Singles ( entry is restricted to Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries, Match Secretaries, Competition Secretaries past and present of affiliated clubs, and the Secretary, Assistant Secretary, Competition Secretary, Group Secretaries, Group Assistant/Competition Secretaries past and present of the E.C.B.A.)
  • County Under 25s singles
  • National Over 55s Singles

    The main County Competitions (Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours) are played on specific nights (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday respectively) but the rest are played with “play by” dates.

    Each competition result has to be notified to an appropriate area Secretary, usually by post and accompanied by a self addressed stamped envelope for return of a card bearing the details of the next round.

    Entrants into County Competitions will need to purchase a County Handbook which at first viewing could well be written in code. However a few words of explanation may help.

    The first half of the main body of the group is a list of all entrants, by club within Group. Thus, Brentwood is (at present) the first club listed in Group 4. Each competitor is assigned a number, the first part of which refers to the club, and the rest refers to the members alphabetical position within that clubs list of competitors. So in 2002, E.Webb was listed as 4A10 (the last one alphabetically, whereas Byron Davies was 4A1.

    The second part of the main body of the book is the play list for the earliest rounds of the competition. Here is where the confusion starts, because players from clubs from group 4 may not be listed in area 4 of the competition. For example, in the 2002 season, in the County Singles 4A10 played in area 6 but 4A2 (R.Funnell) played in Area 7. In the Benevolent Singles, 4A10 played in Area 3, and in the Unbadged Singles in Area 7. The only answer is, I am afraid, to search diligently for your entries (and don't forget to read the information about play-by dates and return of results cards at the beginning of each section).

    Entry forms for the National Over 55 Singles (and Pairs) also Mixed Fours and Mixed Pairs, can be obtained from the E.B.A at Lyndhurst Road, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 2AZ.