A message from Whites Captain, Gareth Rees:
Liphook Whites is the second team in Liphook. Since I joined the club at the end of 2022 the Whites have finished 8th, 7th and last year a creditable 3rd just missing out on promotion by 5.5 points.
The Whites were the early leaders in Division 4 in 2024 and were in prime position for promotion. Unfortunately we had a disastrous end to the season where we lost our last three games to agonisingly miss out on a top two spot. We scored the most shots of any team in Division 4 by achieving a seson high shot score of 660 points. More than Frensham and Hindhead B who got promoted. Our problem was shots against and when we were defeated on a rink we went down heavily.
We were gutted to lose Tony Wareham to the first team this year but I'm delighted to say that we have a much strengthened team for 2025. The Whites welcome three sensational skippers into the team. Mick Wright comes to us with 10 years of bowling experience, Barry Denny skips for Liphook as a champion from Arundel and Middleton and Dick Carn becomes a skipper for us as a Three Counties singles semi finalist. As well as those three great experienced bowlers we also have our very own Hilary Copp as a skipper in 2025. Together with me, Hilary was the Rother Valley Triples champion, is a former George Todd Champion and but for her final shot in the final should have turned her Birthday Cup runner up into a winner in 2024.
Our seconds are equally as impressive in 2025. Ron Mancey back hand is legendary at the club and Colin Richards goes up to a second as the 2024 George Todd champion. In the lead positions we welcome into the team Sonia Denny. Sonia is an experienced lead with a wealth of bowling experience at Middleton and Arundel and we have our own Alan Donovan in the lead position. Alan was our highest performing bowler in the Whites in 2024 averaging a win in all of his matches of 4 shots. Completing our team as leads come in Chris and Rachel Nicholls. They were both finalists in our end of season Harlequin with Chris a runner up and Rachel carrying off the winners trophy. They were so good that no one believed that they are first year bowlers!
As captain I learnt a few lessons in 2024 that I aim to build on in 2025. We will be following the Three Counties rules to the letter and won't agree to rearrange matches when teams cannot fulfill a fixture and will closely monitor any teams playing squad when we come up against them. If I had done so in 2024 then instead of rearranging games our opposition would have been forced to concede a match and we would be a Division 3 team in 2025.
We're all excited for 2025, looking forward to a great winning season for the Liphook Whites and hoping to make lots of friends on the green along the way.
Liphook Whites is the second team in Liphook. Since I joined the club at the end of 2022 the Whites have finished 8th, 7th and last year a creditable 3rd just missing out on promotion by 5.5 points.
The Whites were the early leaders in Division 4 in 2024 and were in prime position for promotion. Unfortunately we had a disastrous end to the season where we lost our last three games to agonisingly miss out on a top two spot. We scored the most shots of any team in Division 4 by achieving a seson high shot score of 660 points. More than Frensham and Hindhead B who got promoted. Our problem was shots against and when we were defeated on a rink we went down heavily.
We were gutted to lose Tony Wareham to the first team this year but I'm delighted to say that we have a much strengthened team for 2025. The Whites welcome three sensational skippers into the team. Mick Wright comes to us with 10 years of bowling experience, Barry Denny skips for Liphook as a champion from Arundel and Middleton and Dick Carn becomes a skipper for us as a Three Counties singles semi finalist. As well as those three great experienced bowlers we also have our very own Hilary Copp as a skipper in 2025. Together with me, Hilary was the Rother Valley Triples champion, is a former George Todd Champion and but for her final shot in the final should have turned her Birthday Cup runner up into a winner in 2024.
Our seconds are equally as impressive in 2025. Ron Mancey back hand is legendary at the club and Colin Richards goes up to a second as the 2024 George Todd champion. In the lead positions we welcome into the team Sonia Denny. Sonia is an experienced lead with a wealth of bowling experience at Middleton and Arundel and we have our own Alan Donovan in the lead position. Alan was our highest performing bowler in the Whites in 2024 averaging a win in all of his matches of 4 shots. Completing our team as leads come in Chris and Rachel Nicholls. They were both finalists in our end of season Harlequin with Chris a runner up and Rachel carrying off the winners trophy. They were so good that no one believed that they are first year bowlers!
As captain I learnt a few lessons in 2024 that I aim to build on in 2025. We will be following the Three Counties rules to the letter and won't agree to rearrange matches when teams cannot fulfill a fixture and will closely monitor any teams playing squad when we come up against them. If I had done so in 2024 then instead of rearranging games our opposition would have been forced to concede a match and we would be a Division 3 team in 2025.
We're all excited for 2025, looking forward to a great winning season for the Liphook Whites and hoping to make lots of friends on the green along the way.
Liphook Whites (2nd Team) Fixtures for 2025 Season:
Liphook Whites (2nd Team) Results 2024 Season:
