Blood Moon and Bowls

SUNDAY

A relatively early start for a Sunday morning.

As I’d finished top of our ‘B’ team averages in the Thursday evening Clwyd Bowling League, I was selected—along with Brian, and also Les and Iwan from the ‘A’ team—to represent Rhuddlan in the league’s individual merit competition at East Parade, Rhyl.

With 80 bowlers competing for just eight qualifying places in the finals (in two weeks’ time), the day involved a lot of waiting around. 

I arrived for registration at 9:30 and played my first game around an hour later—which I won relatively comfortably. Then a long wait until 1:00 pm for a much tougher second game, which I just managed to scrape through, 21–20. That win took me into the final qualifying round at around 3:30 pm… where I was well and truly hammered! We had a few rain showers during the day but, thankfully, the forecast downpours never materialised. 

I had great support around the green from Brian, Les, Iwan, Kevin, Julie, and Ruth, plus lots of kind messages online wishing me well. Sorry if I let anyone down! 

On the bright side, my club mates Iwan and Les did manage to qualify.

After dinner this evening, I headed out to catch the lunar eclipse. According to the Royal Observatory, the best time to view it was at 7:33 pm although the eclipse was set to last until 9:55 pm.

Being in the western part of the UK, our sunset in Tremeirchion wasn’t until 19:47 (about 15 minutes later than London), so it wasn’t really dark enough at the appointed time. I also had to drive a few miles up into the hills to get a clear view of the south eastern sky, as the moon was quite low.

I took the photo at 8:20 pm.