The Bovril KO competition begins

Winter League

The resumption of Winter League bowling is always something I look forward to with a great deal of satisfaction and excitement but also a period of frustration and disappointment. To date I know of only one of our 10 host clubs that offer a staple product for outside Winter sport events, which is a fundamental part of Winter bowling - Bovril.

I have visited 9 of the 10 host clubs already this season but nowhere can I find the Winter hot drink that is made specifically for Winter sports and proudly proclaims this on its advertising literature. This is a serious lapse in the otherwise exemplary services to bowlers everywhere in the League.

I now appeal to the bowlers and spectators at Winter League matches everywhere to unite and demand the option to take bowlers back in time to a period when a hot Bovril was the ultimate answer to inclement weather. Whether that be a frozen surface, pelting snow or a Winter rainstorm, Bovril would see you through the terrors that the worst of British weather could throw at you and warm the cockles of your heart and beyond.

Bovril is the reason I especially welcome the opening of the Pairs KO competition as I know that those discerning foot soldiers at Thorpe Green, the home again this year of the Pairs KO, will move heaven and earth to ensure that a steady supply of Bovril will be at hand for us die-hard fanatics. Only the full beefy taste can help us survive all the adverse elements that a Yorkshire Winter can throw at us in this bowling outpost.

Yet even though I know that the Thorpe Green catering crew will travel any distance to secure an adequate supply for the opening day of competition in this year's Pairs KO I do know that they have struggled over recent years to maintain a ready supply of such basic ingredients of a successful competition. Indeed, they have had to resort in recent years to going into the unknown territory known as Home Bargains when rumours circulated that they had started stocking the magic drink. And indeed they did for a period but supplies soon disappeared, leaving us Bovril addicts concerned about the merits of the future running of a bowling competition at all.

I have good news for all Winter League hosts that Bovril is now available at Amazon. Yes it is. That American online superstore is now selling the one drink that the British sports fan crave for and indeed demand from their sports grounds everywhere. But wait! Amazon are selling a powder and a paste version of this unique product. Which one produces the exclusive taste that will remind me of my first days supporting Scunthorpe United with my dad? I wasn't allowed to have a full paper cup of the sporting drink in those days and as a 6 year-old wasn't mature enough to appreciate the subtle taste of the beefy extracts. I was only allowed the sweeter taste of a Hot Vimto but that is another story.

There is only one solution to this dilemma. I have to buy both the powder and paste versions and conduct a taste test. This is not something that can be conducted alone. It is too serious an issue to undertake in a false environment of being at home without the true background of a cold sporting occasion among fellow supporters. So I will travel to Thorpe Green next Friday with high expectations of recreating the days of old and determining once and for all whether it is to be Powder or Paste. Watch this space as I will be reporting back and once that has been completed I look forward to all host clubs everywhere stocking the one product that can recreate the sporting days of old for many of us wrinklies. It will quickly become a best seller, of which I have no doubt. Exciting days ahead.