Greetings All and welcome (almost) to a new bowls season!
We’ve had some encouragingly bowls-like weather lately, though as I write this it’s raining hard, so let’s hope it gets that done with before we start again. And let’s hope that the current Covid epidemic round here works itself out soon. I know a good number of members have had it, and hope that you’re all over it now.
Various people have been busy at the club. Jackie and her gardening team have been working on getting the areas around the green into shape. Mowing has started again, and Ian and Selwyn have been working hard on the green, which is getting on well. Chris has been out with his shears snipping around the edges of the green. Gary, Mac, Nigel, and I have painted the outside of the changing-rooms and the equipment shed, and Nigel has been busy with the guttering at the back of the clubhouse to ensure that water runs away more freely and harmlessly. Jenny has organised a small working–party to clean up the clubhouse, and all should be in good shape by the time we’re ready to bowl again.
You should all have received forms from Alison for renewing your membership, and if you haven’t got around to doing that yet, please do so soon. We now have to submit our details to East Sussex Bowls before the season starts, and it will make Pam’s job easier if she doesn’t have to chase people up to see if they’re rejoining. (Which you all are, of course!) Alison has also sent out competition entry forms, so please enter as many as you can. The more entries we have, the better the competitions – and you might win something. If you’ve looked at the forms carefully, you’ll see that there is no separate entry for the Club Championship this year. Not many people have been entering this, especially ladies, and it’s rather turned into another Men’s Championship, so the Committee had decided that it would be fairer to run the Men’s Championship and the Ladies Championship during the season, and that the winners of these should play for the Club Championship on Finals Weekend.
As you’ll have seen from the draft fixture list that Dick has sent out, our Green Opening weekend will be on Saturday and Sunday April 23rd and 24th. On the Saturday we shall start at 2 00 (please note start time!), with a significant event for the Club. If you were at the AGM last year you will remember that Patsy proposed that we should install a defibrillator. After inconclusive discussions about this in the Committee, Lesley spoke to her husband Dave, and his company, Project Leaders Ltd, very generously offered to donate one to the Club, which of course we were delighted to accept. Dave will be there on Green Opening Day to present it to us, so I hope as many people as possible will come along for this. Afterwards we shall be able to play some bowls as we wish, and it will be appreciated if members will bring along some cakes or other items for consumption along with the inevitable tea. Later that afternoon Alison and I, and perhaps others, will be going along to an event at Langton School before the Parish Assembly to advertise the Club. This is an annual event, for local organisations to publicise their activities, but has not taken place for the past two years because of Covid. It is, of course, possible that it will not happen again, for the same reason, but the Council hope that it will, and if it does we shall be there.
On the Sunday, we hope to be able to start bowling properly, with a match between the President’s team and the Captain’s team. If there are not enough, or too many, for the usual 4 triples, we shall nevertheless make sure that everyone who wants to play will be able to do so. It will be helpful if you would let me know whether you will be able to come to this, so that we can make some attempt to sort out teams before the day, but if you aren’t yet sure but decide later to come, or not come, don’t worry, everyone will get a go. But please be there by 2 30 on the day.
If you’ve been past the Club in the past few days, you may have seen that we have a banner up on the gate advertising our ‘taster’ day, on the morning of Saturday April 30th. This has to be in the morning, as we have our first match in the afternoon, but to encourage new members we are also going to have an ‘open’ evening on the first Thursday of every month during the season, at 6 00 after Spoon Drive, starting on May 5th. So please encourage anyone you know who might be interested in having a go to come along to one of these, and also please come along yourself when possible to help out and advise potential new players.
You’ll also see that our first Spoon Drive will take place on Thursday April 28th, and that we have a friendly match on Saturday 30th, closely followed by two league matches, on Sunday May 1st and Wednesday May 4th. So please put these in your diaries. We shall put up the usual availability forms for the Green Opening weekend, but it would do no harm if you let me know if you can play as soon as possible so that the Selection Committee can get together that weekend and work out teams. And don’t be shy about putting your name forward for league matches, even if you haven’t played in them before. It’s all bowls, after all, and the more we play and the higher the standard we play at, the better we’ll get.
The Committee have also asked me to mention the Queen’s Jubilee weekend, on June 4th and 5th. We already have a match on the Saturday, but as yet nothing planned for the Sunday. Do we want to hold a special event on the Sunday? We obviously don’t know what people have got planned for the Jubilee – street parties, family gatherings, etc – so we’d be glad to know members’ opinions on whether we should do something on that day, and if there is sufficient interest we’ll organise something.
That’s about all for the moment. We hope you all have a happy Easter, and look forward to seeing you before too long on the green, and to a happy and successful season.
Roy.