OAK HILL NEWSLETTER – June 2021
Welcome to the latest edition of our club newsletter, a brief update on the news about our club.
Members
We are delighted to say that a further 5 new members have joined the club since our last newsletter and we are hopeful that some more members will be joining soon, bringing our total membership close to 90. The recent new members are Junior Brewster, Vince Penn, Vinod Thakrar and David Tinson (all full-playing members) and Leslie Rose (associate member). We hope that they will all enjoy their time at Oak Hill and that you will make them very welcome.
Sue and Barry Frost are about to move away from the area, so will be leaving the club, and we wish them every happiness in their new home.
A number of members have been having health issues and have undergone surgery, or are about to have medical treatment in the next few weeks. We send our best wishes to Brian Davidson, Janice Ford, David Tinson and David Conway, and to the wives of Ashley Goodwin and Alan Nichols. We wish them a speedy recovery and return to good health.
Forthcoming Events
Unfortunately we have had to cancel the training afternoon we had arranged with the coaches from the Hertfordshire Bowls Coaching Society on the 30th June, as the society were unable to provide the number of coaches for the good number of our members who were planning to attend. We have been unable to find a suitable alternative date for this training. However, David Bowler and John Abson will be arranging a number of coaching sessions for our members on Thursday nights, from 6pm to 7.30pm. The first such session, on Thursday 8th July, will be a “delivery clinic”. Please come along if you feel you could benefit from some help with your delivery.
The 2-wood pairs competition will take place on Saturday 3rd July. If you would like to take part, and haven’t yet put your name on the sheet on the competitions notice board, please do so before Friday. The draw for the competition will be held at 10am. Dress code is whites.
The Progressive Bowls afternoon will be held on Saturday 10th July, starting at 2pm. A sheet for entry is on the notice board in the corridor leading to the toilets. Please indicate what position (in a team of four players) you would prefer to play.
Covid Restrictions
You will be aware that the government has not totally relaxed the Covid-related restrictions, so we are not able to resume normal club-night activities. However, we can allow members to share post-match refreshments inside the clubhouse. The cribbage and bridge clubs have both resumed, but for the time-being will be restricting their activities to 24 members inside the clubhouse. We would stress the importance of taking sensible precautions, including regular use of the hand sanitiser provided throughout the club, and please put your names on the daily sheet in the diary, so that the information is available for the government’s “track & trace” system if required.
Competitions
The draws for most of the club competitions have been made, with details on the competitions notice board in the corridor outside the bar, and we would ask members to observe the play-by dates for the respective rounds of each competition. Entries can still be made for the various fixed-date competitions – the 2-wood pairs on 3rd July – the mixed triples on 24th July – the Bob Sawyer Trophy on 30th August – the Aussie Pairs on 4th September, with entry sheets available on the competitions notice board.
100 Club & Bonus Ball
There are still some numbers available for the Bonus Ball and 100 Club draws. Entries into the 100 club draw can be made in multiples of £10 and a monthly draw is made with the winner receiving £100. Similarly, entries into the Bonus Ball can be made in multiples of £20, with a weekly draw and the winner receiving £40. For more details and to choose your favourite numbers please see Gloria Fligman.
Cleaning Rota, Catering, etc.
Christine has organised rotas for members to clean the club-house each week, normally on a Friday morning, and to prepare refreshments after some of our matches, predominantly evening games when we provide a light supper for the players. Please arrange to swap with another member if you are unable to fulfill your duty.
The council do not collect rubbish from our site, so we would be grateful if members would take any sacks of refuse away with them. Please do not leave sacks outside the club-house, particularly if they contain food scraps, as the crows in the park are not at all timid, and we have had at least two recent occasions when crows have actually ventured into the club-house itself in search of food.
Clubhouse
At its recent meeting, the club committee considered two main options for a new club-house
- a new 2-storey building on the site of the current clubhouse
- a single storey building to the north side of the green, between the club and the football pitches in the park.
It was agreed to proceed with plans to build a 2-storey building on the current site and we have already had an initial meeting with a potential architect. We will be approaching other potential architects to help us through the planning process. In the meantime we will be developing a business plan to help with our application for planning and funding for this major undertaking. We will keep you informed of future progress.
Amendments to Fixture Booklet
Please note the following amendments to the fixture booklet –
- The Alexandra Trophy, scheduled for Saturday 17th July, has been cancelled by Arnos B.C.
- The Finchley Bowls Week is now being held from Monday 13th to Friday 17th
Please get in touch if you have particular news you wish to share, or if you have articles you would like us to include in future newsletters.