Sunday 26th November saw the twenty-eighth Macmillan Championship take place at Leominster Indoor Bowling Centre. This year’s entry levels returned to pre-pandemic levels as 42 teams (168 players) competed, each playing four games across the day in an open draw format.

Since the first event in 1992, bowlers from across Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Powys, Shropshire and beyond have come together annually to raise over £33,400 for Macmillan, with this year’s tournament adding a further £2,200 to the total. On the mat, a hotly contested competition saw 9 teams having won all 4 of their games by the end of the day meaning that shots difference would decide the overall winner. It was the Ross “3” team of Sue Dix, Elaine George, Dave Watkins and Les Williams who came out on top, with a 20-1 and a 22-2 victory contributing to an incredible overall shots difference of +61. The runners up were Woolhope “1”, 27 shots behind on +34 with Ross “1”, Deer Park Archers and Golden Valley rounding out the top 5.

Away from the competition itself, Peter Wright, also of Ross B.C., took home the fantastic prize of a box of biscuits having recorded the highest score for the day on the target bowls mat. Upstairs saw the refreshments, including a fantastic selection of donated homemade cakes, prove to be incredibly popular with the real main event of the day, the raffle, seeing over 60 prizes donated in addition to the separate whiskey and hamper raffles, all of which generated much interest and many donations.

The HSMBA’s thanks goes to Becci Cox for all of her hard work organising and overseeing the day, Ian Roe for umpiring and organising the putting out and packing away of equipment, Jim and Ann Wilkinson for their hard work on the raffle table, Ruth Martin and Sue Stannard for their tireless efforts on refreshments, Sophie Heather-Warner for manning Facebook and her photography of the day, Joe Loveys for being in several places at once, Merion Attwood for providing the fantastic excel spreadsheet for the tournament and finally all of the players and clubs who took part made the day the fantastic success that it was.

The full results sheet is available below: