Priory met Fareham at Cosham Park BC in the 2025 Rowland Cup Final, with Priory hoping to emulate Cowplain’s Feat of Winning the Cup having just been Relegated.

After 6 ends, Priory held a 3shot lead, with the 7shot lead of Priory’s Dave Knight rink over Dorian Bishop’s men being matched by Fareham’s Bill Ross rink over Dave Young’s Foursome.

At 12 ends, Priory were just in the Lead by a Single shot, with the Winning Margins on the rinks of Dave Knight and Bill Ross still negating each other.

At that point, the game between Priory’s Richard Smalley and Fareham’s Cyril Friend was slipping behind the other 3 so that after they had all completed their 18ends, they still had 2ends to go.

At that stage:

• The close battle between Nigel Munday and Charlie Bailey had swung Fareham’s way as Charlie’s rink took a 3 on the 17th end and ran out 3shot winners
• In the Dave Knight/Dorian Bishop match, Dorian’s men had closed the gap, so that the Priory rink finally won by 5shots
• It was a similar story in the Dave Young/ Bill Ross match as Dave’s Foursome closed the gap to reduce the Fareham’s Rink winning margin to 3shots

That meant that, with the last 2 ends to be played on the Richard Smalley v Cyril Friend game, Priory held a 3Shot Lead Overall.

• That was reduced to 2 after Cyril Friend bowled an excellent Pressure Final bowl to get the shot, whilst Richard showed the first signs of the pressure getting to him.

• On the Final End:
  • An excellent final bowl by Chris Kircher gave Fareham the2shots needed to Tie the game
  • With his Final Bowl, Cyril put in a 3rd scoring shot, to that put Fareham in Front of the Match – as well as Tying the Rink Score
  • Sadly, Richard could do nothing to change the score with his Final Bowl

So, the game ended with Fareham winning the Cup by the Slenderest of Margins – 1shot.

• This was the 3rd time they have won the Cup – 2years after their Previous Win.

After the Presentations to both sets of Clubs, the P&D thanked:

• Cosham Park for providing their Venue for the Final and the Girls behind the scenes for Feeding and providing Beverages to the Bowlers and Spectators.
• Umpire David Lewis for travelling from New Milton to give up his time to support the Players.