FULLER AMBLER DISAPPOINTMENT

Over the years the Loddon Vale Indoor Club's competition for indoor clubs has seen many formats (who remembers when Oakley entered two teams of 3 rinks in what was called the Cusheon Trophy) but for 2019/20 it was reduced to a single rink event and renamed the Fuller Ambler Trophy in memory of two former members of the indoor club. Having reached five successive finals of the Cusheon the change seemed to make little difference to Oakley as, in March 2020, they reached the final of the new event. The pandemic meant that the final was postponed to this evening and hopes were high that Oakley would be the first winner of the new trophy. However, Old Basing had other ideas and they stormed out of the blocks, leading 14-0 after only 6 ends and, try as they did, the Oakley team of Malcolm Grime, Sean Lassman, Steve Devonshire and Alice Lovett found themselves unable to pull back such a deficit against opponents who were playing superior bowls and after 18 ends the game was conceded with Basing leading 24-10. It was fitting that Old Basing should be the first winners as Frank Fuller was a Basing member and Jane was there to present the trophy, named after her husband, to his old club.