Welcome to Abington Bowling Club

ABINGTON WILL PLAY no further part in the National 2-Fours this year. The A-team were defeated in the 3rd round by Kingsthorpe B, the same outfit who had knocked out our B-side in the previous stage.

 

The game began brightly, with both rinks leading for most of the early exchanges but after taking an 11-5 lead at halfway, Iain Walker's rink simply ran out of shots. Their Kingsthorpe opponents came back and overwhelmed them 22-11. And with John Freeman's rink finishing deadlocked at 14-all, that 11-shot difference was also the gap between the two sides on aggregate.​

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​​​​​​​27/06/2026: THE MANFIELD CUP is not coming back to Abington, but there were plenty of reasons to be cheerful. One, two, three rinks returned to HQ in the evening victorious, and only an inspired performance from Desborough star Pete Ward kept it from being a perfect four.

 

Even with an extra handful of shots though, Abington would still have been some way short of the 60- and 40-plus marks set by Higham Ferrers and Kingsthorpe, who take the winners and runners-up shields for 2026. Abington's shot difference only just edged into double figures, the bulk of which came from Alan Dunkley's rink.

 

Drawn against a Wellingborough rink skipped by Darren Childs, few would have expected an Abington victory, and certainly not the day's top result. But Dunkley, Colin Barnes, Adam Brown, and team captain Rob Archer proved their own quality with a sensational performance, keeping their garlanded opposition close in the first half and running riot in the second. 23-12 was the final score of a match that had been 8-11 at the haflway point. The day may have ended trophyless, but the memory of this one will endure.

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25/06/2026: THE NORTHANTS SENIOR FOURS holds the tantalising prospect of an all-Abington final. Both of our entrants in the women's competition strolled into the last four. The headline act of all four quarter-finals was a colossal performance from Christine Ball's rink, a 22-3 thrashing of Kingsthorpe star Sharon Tansley.​

 

​​​​​​​ On the next rink, Gill Crossley's set-up was involved in a closer tussle with a Wootton Grange rink skipped by Jenny Broome. They too now sit just two wins away from a place at the national finals after edging it 19-16. The semi-finals will take place next Friday, 3rd July at Earls Barton. It could be one of the great nights for Abington.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​