OAK HILL NEWSLETTER – May 2021
Welcome to the latest edition of our club newsletter. It brings news of the season so far and our plans for the rest of the season and beyond.
Bowls’ Big Weekend
So far we have held a number of Open Days at the club and, despite the poor weather, have had some good results (see more details below). Bowls England is organising a big recruitment drive over the bank-holiday weekend of the 29th / 31st May. We have registered our activity as part of this Bowls’ Big Weekend as taking place on the Saturday morning, 29th May, from 10am to 12noon. Please encourage your friends to come along.
Fortunately, the weather forecast for Saturday is more promising, so we hope to have a good turn-out of potential new bowlers. In order to support our activity, we need members to welcome participants, serve drinks and generally make people feel at home, and help with giving a brief introduction to bowls on the green. The aim is to encourage potential members to come along, enjoy a taster session, then arrange a more formal course of coaching before joining the club.
Your support would be very much appreciated.
New Members
Through our efforts so far, we are delighted to welcome 5 new bowling members to our club – Alan Banes, Alexandru Popescu, Barry Brennan, Liam Murphy and Martin Woodrow. Margaret Woodrow has also joined the club as a Social member. Alex and Barry have already joined a team in the Monday afternoon league, and Barry, Liam and Martin have entered some of the club’s competitions. We hope you will make them welcome and that they will enjoy many happy years of bowling at Oak Hill.
At our Open days we have also welcomed a number of other prospective bowlers and they are at various stages in their coaching course. Many thanks to those members who have encouraged friends to come along to the club.
Club Jackets & Shirts
Our order for club shirts and new jackets in a similar design has now been received. We have a few spare items in stock, so please see Jackie Robinson, Peter Speroni or John Abson if you would like to have an additional shirt or a new jacket.
Re-arranged Fixtures
Please note the following amendments to the club’s fixture booklet –
- The club telephone number is 020 8368 0026;
- The Progressive Bowls afternoon is moved from 26th June to 10th July;
- The Alexandra Trophy on the 17th July has been cancelled by Arnos B.C.
Card Payment System
In order to reduce the necessity for handling cash we have now introduced a card payment system. The system accepts payment from most debit and credit cards.
Covid Restrictions
We are very pleased that the government has been able to proceed with the next stage of its “roadmap” and that some of the Covid-related restrictions have now been lifted. This means that we can proceed with playing bowls in a more normal way. The green is now laid out in 6 rinks with the normal 2-metre markings. The changing rooms can now be used.
However, we would stress the importance of taking sensible precautions, including regular use of the hand sanitiser provided throughout the club. The club diary is available on the shelves just inside the clubhouse and rinks can be booked for competitions in the normal way. When members come to the club for informal roll-ups and practice they are asked to put their names on the daily sheet in the diary, so that the information is available for the government’s “track & trace” system if required.
We sincerely hope that the next stage of the “roadmap” will proceed on Monday 21st June, as this will enable us to serve refreshments inside the clubhouse, and also to re-start our normal club-night activities and the cribbage and bridge clubs. The next meeting of the club committee is scheduled for 16th June, when we hope to be able to make the decisions about further opening the activities of the club.
Coaching on Club-nights
The club provides informal bowling on Thursday evenings (club nights) between 6pm and 7.30pm. We hope that after the 21st June we will be able to provide the traditional club-night meal after this bowling. Our plan is to provide a programme of coaching for existing members on alternate Thursday evenings, with the Acorn Trophy on the other Thursdays. Details of this training programme will be posted on the competitions notice board. There is no need to sign up for these sessions – just turn up and we hope you find them useful.
HBCS Coaching Day
We have arranged for the team of coaches from the Hertfordshire Bowls Coaching Society to visit Oak Hill on the afternoon of Wednesday 30th June. This activity has been very popular in the past, so please check the competitions notice board for more details. Nearer the time we will require names of those attending so that we can plan the number of coaching sessions and how many coaches will be needed.
Competitions
The draws for most of the club competitions have been made. The details are on the competitions notice board in the corridor outside the bar. Please 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.
League Results
Our programme of league matches starts in earnest in the next few weeks, so please check the team sheets on the various notice boards – the ladies’ changing room for the Herts County League, the Brigg League and St Albans & District Triples league – the men’s changing room for the Herts County League, Vets League and Day Cup – the mixed notice board in the toilet corridor for the Prentice Cup and the Enfield & District Sunday league. Please check with the respective captains if you would like to play. We are a competitive club and would encourage members to take part in these various leagues.
So far we have played 2 matches in the George Cairns Vets league (for men aged 60 and over), drawing 4-4 away against Selbourne and winning 6-2 at home against Winchmore Hill (the league winners in 2019, the last year that the league was played).
Cleaning Rota, Catering, etc.
Christine has organised a rota for members to clean the club-house each week, normally on a Friday morning. Similarly, we need members to help prepare refreshments after some of our matches, predominantly evening games when we provide a light supper for the players. We expect members to make themselves available to help with these duties, so please be prepared to help if asked. If you are unable to do the duty allocated to you please swap with another member and mark the change on the list on the board outside the kitchen.
Christine would also like to hear from members who are able to help with catering at club-nights.
Clubhouse
We recently had a very useful meeting with two senior representatives from Barnet Council to discuss our potential ideas for building a new clubhouse. We outlined two major options – for a new 2-storey building on the site of the current clubhouse – for a single storey building to the north side of the green, between the club and the football pitches in the park. To proceed with an application for funding from Sport England we would require the support of the council. We will keep you informed of future progress.
Communications – Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.
There are a number of methods for keeping in touch with other members and with news from the club. We try to keep the web-site up-to-date, and many members also use the WhatsApp group (please contact Peter Speroni for more information) or our Facebook page.
The Wifi inside the clubhouse is available for members to use if needed. We are currently reviewing the security details for this and will let you know more information when it is available.
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.