Bayside Boules Club - Alden Park - since late 2019

Costa del Bayside. Another bout of spectacular September weather saw the boules pistes being well trodden over the course of the week. There were confirmed sightings of boulies most mornings... twelve on Monday, ten on Tuesday, four on Wednesday, nine on Thursday and five on Saturday! Everyone is clearly enjoying themselves and long may it continue. Group A League Competition Two more Group A players entered the competition fray on Monday. Larry & Tommy both scored well and got their respective bids for glory off to good starts. The new format is working well and players are moving between games with the minimum of fuss. Of course, there is lots of chat and banter where time allows! Speaking of which, we had two surprisingly early finishes in one match from Game 1 and another from Game 2. This will happen from time to time if one team manages to steamroll another. Most games are only just finishing or not quite getting over the line so we hope we're getting the balance right. S...

Why so happy? Coch life is good, of course! Group A League Competition On a pleasant morning, eleven players arrived for the start of our new format Group A League competition. There was plenty of good natured banter and perhaps one or two 'colourful phrases' (!) to be heard ringing around the pistes. The big change for this iteration is the introduction of time-limited games. The session is split into three rounds of games with set start times of 1000, 1040 and 1120. The last end for each round is called at 1035, 1115 and 1200. Scores are recorded at each interval and a new blind draw is conducted to select teammates and opponents for the next round. The competition will run for 12 weeks allowing a maximum 36 games to be played, of which the best 24 games will count for everyone's final total. The new format was very well received and players enjoyed the extra mixing up of play that it created. The chance to escape the tortuous triple singles variant after only one game wa...

 GROUP A Competition Presentation: Ciaran was presented with the trophy, named in honour of his late father Tommy, after play this morning.  Tom D, in his presentation notes, commented on how close the Covid-delayed competition was and that first placed Ciaran was only one point ahead of second placed Chris with Tom D only two points further adrift.   The presentation was made in seasonably good weather with the twelve players plus Nigel and Dennis and Gwen and the boys in attendance.  Ciaran expressed his delight at winning the dedicated trophy and thanked the players who aided his achievement along the way. Group A Play: A number of players are away on holiday or otherwise unavailable. Those available played today in glorious conditions following the monsoon-like conditions of the past couple of days.  New boules were tested and great enjoyment was on offer in blind-drawn combinations. A couple of our fellow BBC compatriots arrived later to play on the fr...

  The final day of the Group A Monday Competition.  The top few players were in contention and depending on how they performed today would decide the outcome.  How close can you get!   Ciaran won the competition by one point from Chris with Tom D a further two points behind.  Congratulations Ciaran and commiserations to all the competitors but particularly the chasing group. There were thirteen players on a pleasant morning 2 x 4, 1 x 3 and 1 x 2 groupings.  The next Group A Competition will recommence after a short delay.   The Doubles Matchplay that involves players from Group A, B, C and invitees from St. Anne's will commence shortly and these matches will be arranged, by appointment, by the players themselves in the same manner as the recent singles Competition. National Singles Competition: This was a particularly auspicious couple of days for Ciaran as he played in the Leinster qualifier for the National Singles competition organised by...