Ringwood Bowling Club

What do Beyoncé, her hit All The Single Ladies and an Australian lawn bowls club have in common? Well, up until recently, absolutely nothing. But that changed when the Chadstone Bowls Club in Melbourne decided the song would be the perfect way to promote their campaign to save the venue from demolition.

In just three days, their adapted rendition and resulting video, complete with the moves that made it a favourite on dance floors across the globe almost a decade ago, has had a million views. I imagine that there would now be an international outcry if the decision is taken to bring in the bulldozers!

Click here to read the BBC news story with a link to the video and here to watch the (slightly better) Beyoncé version!

Many congratulations to our Ladies' Captain, Sharon Varndell, who won the Bournemouth & District Ladies Two-wood Singles Competition at Southbourne on the 21st July. She beat Pauline West of Southbourne to claim the title.

Here are some pictures. Julie Leake (formerly Saunders) is the England national Ladies Four-wood singles champion, who started her illustrious career at Ringwood!

• Sharon with Julie Leake
• Sharon in action
• Sharon with (centre) Olive Holder, B & D Ladies President, and Pauline West
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The Ringwood Festival Plate competition on Sunday 23rd July was halted prematurely after lunch due to torrential rain and the semi-finals have been postponed to a date to be fixed. Bedraggled players had to content themselves with continuing the buffet accompanied by a soothing beer/wine!  Many thanks, by the way, to all those who donated food for the buffet - there was plenty left for Monday night!

The semi-finals will be contested by the following:

Alan Mason, Chris Dalrymple, George Dickson v. Ian Harding, Fred Alderman, Sharon Varndell

Helena Webber, Nigel Hurll, John Stone v. Sue Wyatt, Maureen Huggins, Mel Barrett

More information will be published here when available. Meanhwile, see below for pictorial dampness!

On a chilly Saturday morning in November, the Ringwood ladies gathered for a little celebration and I was happy to take some pictures to record the event.Here are a dozen (you can click each one for a larger version) and, once again, many congratulations to the ladies on their remarkable achievements in their leagues in 2016. When I left them in the clubhouse at around 10.45am, a bottle of fizz had been opened!

• Assembling
• Preparing
• Debbie, Sharon and Breta
• Helen, Sharon and Jenny
• Helen, Sharon and Jenny Number 2
• New Forest success
• Bournemouth & District success
• Bournemouth & District success
• New Forest D Division Champions
• Sharon and Breta
• Sharon and Breta 2
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