Allan Thornhill ITO, Poseidonos Ave P.O. Box 60182 CY 8101, Pafos, Cyprus, Káto Páfos (2026)

13/12/2025

That’s a wrap on day whatever!!
The sun came out for the last day of play at the Atlantic Senior Fours Mixed Competition yesterday.

Spectators were treated to some incredible ties in the Cup, Plate and Bowl sessions.

After the games we held the medal ceremony for the 5 disciplines played over the past two weeks.
Then it was time for the gala dinner, awards and speeches. The highlight of which was the hilarious John Bell and the thanks from many of the nations.

Today, following a debrief meeting with the management team, we await the flight home and the end of another fantastic ASF event.

On a personal note I have to pass on my sincere thanks to the six ITOs who have gone above and beyond to make the games run smoothly. Their professionalism is second to none.

Phrase of the day: FABULOUS

12/12/2025

Penultimate day because I don’t know what number to use!!

A slightly frustrating day with the weather. It was cold cloudy and down right miserable. Come to Cyprus and enjoy the sunshine they said. But despite the rain, some distant thunderstorms on the hills and another waterspout, we got the quarterfinal games completed.

There were some interesting ties. We had Scotland playing Scotland and Scotland won, but imagine flying 11000 miles from Australia to play each other. Breaking news, Australia won.

I managed to catch a video clip of our little Scottish ITO, Fiona, wrapped up in 14 layers and barely able to move.

I’ve also thrown in a couple of photos of a friendly stray cat that found its way into the restaurant.

Last day of competition today and we have the semi-finals of the mixed Cup, Plate and Bowl competitions underway as I type. The sky has finally turned blue and there is some warmth in the early morning sun.

This afternoon we have the finals followed by the prize giving and Gala Dinner.

I may get round to summarising tonight dependent on how the liquid refreshments go.

Phrase of the day: “flying by the seat of our pants”

10/12/2025

Day 10, or is it day 1 as we have started a new competition - the Mixed Fours.

No action photos today because quite frankly it’s getting boring taking photos of the rain and the wind. Come to Cyprus for the sun they said. It’s been the wettest December since 1917 apparently. Instead you can have a photo of me with the lovely Ann Allman who works tirelessly every single day to ensure that everything runs smoothly operationally.

Last night we held a Q&A session with the celeb players, commentators and me. There were some interesting questions posed and some great discussion.

This morning we started the first round of the Mixed Fours. 14 sections of 3 teams played throughout the day for places in a Cup, Bowl and Plate knockout to be played tomorrow.

It was cold and wet pretty much all day but we managed to get through without moving to the indoor rinks.

News from yesterday, Dan and Huw successfully re-accredited as ITOs which was a bit of luck as we don’t have any spare NTO shirts and they were both needed today.

Phrase of the day: “rain, rain go away, come back again another ….. actually, no just bu**er off until we have finished on Friday”

09/12/2025

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨

Dan and Huw passed their ITO reaccreditation today.
Which is a relief as they are on duty tomorrow.
See how smug they look

Congratulations you two 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

09/12/2025

It’s now day 9, I missed an update yesterday sorry.
Monday - day 8 we played the semifinals and finals of the ladies and gents fours. We were forced indoor due to a continuing storm ravaging Paphos - we even had a water spout thing, a tornado in the sea.

Anyway I digress, semi finals we played in the morning session and the quality of bowls on show was superb. Then in the afternoon we played the two finals. Scotland were victorious in the men’s fours and Ireland came through in the ladies.

A relaxing evening with a quiz night which we unfortunately didn’t win this year - blame firmly lies with the new ITOs I’m afraid 🙈

Today was a day of rest for the ITOs whilst the teams once again took to the outside rinks for practice prior to the start of the mixed four starting in the morning.

Roger and I headed over to the Aliathon club to carry out ITO accreditations on one new Cyprus candidate and Dan and Huw took their re-accreditation.

Then we had a stroll into Paphos to enjoy a very cheap beer and some ice cream. Huw also too a fancy to a hat to stop his bald bit burning.

This evening we had a Q&A where our celebrity players and myself will be grilled by the audience no doubt.

Phrase of the day: “chill, reset and start again another day”

07/12/2025

🙈 Edit 😳 it’s day 7 apparently - who knew, not me obviously!!!!

Day 8 by all accounts - last day of sectional play. My lovely colleagues let me take the morning off with a view of going for a walk and chilling. Pulled back the curtains, said sod that and went back to bed.

The heavens opened and stayed open for business pretty much all day. Gary and Dan had to make some difficult decisions to try and accommodate the final sectional rounds on the indoor rinks. The plans were not to everyone’s liking but in the absence of any credible alternative suggestions the decision stood.

So all day we played indoors to determine the semi final line up which will again be played indoor tomorrow due to the 80% risk of heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Everyone raised their games on the indoor carpets and there were some incredible tussles.

Hoping for better weather for the rest of the week so we can commence the Mixed Pairs events without disruption

Phrase of the day: “when it goes t**s up, keep calm and stick to your guns”

06/12/2025

Day 6 apparently - a bit of movie magic for your amusement today and to prove that I do get my knees dirty sometimes.

Very windy again today and threats of rain for. Most of the morning, but we got lucky.

I happened to be standing in the right place at the right time to help David with a couple of two handed measures.

We completed last nights ladies matches tonight on the indoor carpets. With just another round of men’s and ladies fours it’s really tight at the top of both ladders and all to play for tomorrow.

Phrase of the day: “Be in the right place at the right time”

05/12/2025

Day 5ish - not sure where to start. Very very windy blowing away chairs and mats and even the rink markings. 💨💨💨

I thought I would throw in a vid of Mr Jones doing his best under the circumstances as the wind ruffled his hair.

I realised I have only shown the external view of ITO base camp where Dan eats his bananas, so you can have a shot of what is on the inside today. Lots of flags, scorecards and umpires kits - I hid all the chocolate and cake.

Then we came to the evening session and an hour in Thor had other ideas. A lightning storm got closer and closer and so we stopped play and moved into the indoor carpets. Half the 8 teams played tonight , the other half will play tomorrow night.

Lots of head scratching as we considered all of the options. One thing we discovered was the airhorn is very loud indoor 🙉🙉

Phrase of the day: well I had one early on now I have two.
“When the North Wind Doth Blow….. yer bools aboot
And
“Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening”

04/12/2025

Day 4 (I think) another good day. We seem to have a Cypriot gremlin shenanigans, measured all the rinks again this morning and 3 of the 16 were wrong again. Maybe we are going a bit stir crazy.

A few little issues around slow play with a couple of games not finishing 15 ends in 2 hours 30 mins - just play bowls !!!

Hotter day today but once that sun dropped off the edge the temperature dropped rapidly.

A little snippet of perfection on show this evening.

Good close tussles at the top of the section tables.

Phrase of the day: they doth protest too much

03/12/2025

Day 3 - lovely warm day and a freezing cold evening session. All went off without a hitch. A few little rink adjustments due to the Cyprus Squirrels moving some boundary pegs. Dan enjoyed a banana and I got my knees dirty helping with some measures. Great crowd on the session today.
Phrase of the day: “not all things have to be equal”

02/12/2025

Day 2 done …. Eventually. A few dramas today especially tonight when the floodlights went out. We had to move 4 rinks to another green after 5 ends and stop the clock for those rinks for 38 minutes.

Few other little niggles but all in a days work for our amazing ITOs and NTOs. Buzz phrase of the day - teamwork makes the dreamwork.

01/12/2025

Day 1 done Atlantic-Senior-Fours
All went smoothly on the surface
Heavy downpour before play this morning then the sun came out then the lights came on and it got cold. Live Cyprus this time of year
Same again tomorrow? Yeah why not

Allan Thornhill ITO

13/12/2025

12/12/2025

10/12/2025

09/12/2025

09/12/2025

07/12/2025

06/12/2025

05/12/2025

04/12/2025

03/12/2025

02/12/2025

01/12/2025

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