Horsham Bowling Club have two teams playing this season in the County First Division. Horsham Yellow Team have had a difficult season and will unfortunately be relegated to the second division next season. The other Horsham team in the first division, the Blue team, were until recently also in the relegation zone, but they seem to have got themselves into a position to survive in a mid-table position. Horsham Blue played their last game of the season last week at home to top of the table Downsman from Crawley. Downsman have been unbeaten all season and Horsham have never in the past had any success in their previous encounters. This time, however, in need of valuable points to secure their position in division one, Horsham Blue pulled out all the stops and managed a big win on one of the mats 24-9 to secure a very valuable 2 points. The Horsham Blue team securing the win were led by skip Martin Gardner, supported by Yuki Davies, Debbie Jarvis and Chris Hilton-Childs. The result puts Horsham Blue three points ahead of Mannings Heath and five points ahead of Cowfold in a three way fight to avoid relegation. Mannings Heath and Cowfold now both have one home match left to play and they both also play top of the table Downsman in their last matches with six points at stake in each match. The season finale is proving to be very close and exciting with Horsham now favourites to stay up in the top division.
In the County Third Division where Horsham Bowling Club also have two teams competing, the Horsham White team led by captain Jo Newman are currently topping the division and should be promoted to division two next season. Meanwhile Horsham Red team are currently bottom but still have two games to play at home to Horley and away to Thakeham with a valuable 12 points still at stake.
Horsham sent two teams of four to compete in the Open County Charity Pairs at the weekend. There were 20 strong teams from counties across the south of England competing. The Horsham teams who despite having the misfortune to be drawn against each other in the round robin drawn competition finished a creditable 8th and 9th position in a strong field. The Horsham fours comprised Robbie Calder, Wendy Smith, Paul Davies and Richard Bourne in one team and Vanessa Mellor, Dave Packham, James McNulty and Neil Jarvis in the other.