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CONGRATULATIONS KENT
CONGRATULATIONS KENT

I have to say how proud I have been of the Kent A team; they entered this year’s championship as
the holder doing their best to defend last year’s victory. At the completion of the group the team won
all 6 games and had a 41 point gap between their nearest rival West Sussex, we then played Essex
and despite a very strong Essex pairs Kent managed to run out 28 points to 12 victors and by 229
‘shots to 146 shots. In their semi-final against Surrey, last year’s losing finalists. The Kent team felt
the pressure of playing a developing team but eventually ran out 30 - 10 and 188 shots to 138 shots
winners.
This led the team to play, possibly the strongest opponents Cheshire. A very tough battle ensued
with Kent dominating the singles taking all 10 points; the pairs were much closer with Cheshire taking
the points winning 6 points out of the 10. The Triples were dominated by Kent who despite 2 very
close games took 9 points out of 10. However, Kent didn’t have it all their own way as Cheshire dom-
inated in the 4s by taking 8 out of the 10 potential points. The end result was that for Kent’s 6th time
and second year in a row they won the A team Championship with a 25 points to 15 and 195 shots
to 175 shots victory.
I would like to thank each and every one of the team, plus Derrick Groom and Martin Matthews
for managing them on my behalf. The team voted Alan Faulkner as the players player for the season
along with taking the Top performer for the year by winning the most points for the team. Well done
also to Patrick Finnis for taking the Managers player of the season.
Travelling with the team to every game, I can say with absolute certainty this was a superb
team and sequence of results, the players bowled with their hearts on their sleeves, they all supported
each other and kept their belief when results ran against them individually and collectively. As the
County Squad Manager, I couldn’t ask for more so would like to thank them all.
The Premier team had an improved season reaching the semi-final but losing to the relentless
Cheshire Premier team, despite a cracking effort the team lost 27 points to 13 points. There were no
grumbles from Kent, the best team won and lessons were learnt; the first being that this is where the
bar is set if we are to win a premier title again. At the conclusion of the season, the players nominated
Nicky Bartlett for players player, Nicky Bartlett and John Warwick won the top performing team and
Cliff Henry won the managers player of the season. This team is growing, developing and improving
as each season move forward, well done to the team for their superb efforts; many thanks to Jeff
Vanns for helping me run this team as Captain.
Finally, a great big thank you the B team who played a series of matches against the local coun-
ties in the South East corner; the pinnacle for them being the annual Shield game v West Sussex,
which they won with a 32 points to 20 points victory. Well done and thanks to Dave Kruse and Ray
Ryder for their help and support in helping run the team.
On top of this superb season we also secured a sponsorship deal for new shirts from James
Villas Holidays; they very kindly allow us to park in their premises to collect our coaches and this
year agreed to invest in the Kent team with shirts. We also secured a small sponsorship for bowls
stickers from our coach supplier Crosskey Coaches. Two excellent companies who have helped
our county and our county team and on behalf of the squad I thank them as well.
Tim Rycraft Kent County Squad Manager.