Finals Weekend – The traditional weekend of finals of most of our club competitions will be held on the 17th and 18th September, when we hope the weather will be kind and we can all enjoy a feast of good bowling. The programme for the weekend is –
Saturday 17th September, 10am
Two wood pairs: Barry Brennan & Brian Thomas v Leah Ketibuah & Terry Doe
Mixed triples: Kay Comer, Mike Wellbelove & Alan Nicholls v Christine Shields, Junior Brewster & John Abson.
Vets Singles: David Bowler v Margaret Eccleston
Saturday, 17th September, 2pm
Ladies’ Championship: Jill Jordan v Margaret Eccleston
Men’s Championship: Terry Doe v Terry Lovell
Men’s Handicap: Damian Treanor v Martin Woodrow
Men’s 2-wood singles: David Bowler v Liam Murphy
Ladies 2-wood singles: Maureen Lovell v Sheila Bowler
Junior Singles: Michael Marques v Barry Brennan
Sunday, 18th September, 10am
Ladies’ Handicap: Margaret Eccleston v Jill Jordan
Sunday, 18th September, 2pm
Ladies’ Pairs: Margaret Eccleston & Leah Ketibuah v Jill Jordan & Kay Comer or Anne Burnham & June Hughes
Men’s Pairs: Terry Lovell & Martin Woodrow v David Conway & Ian Wilson
We congratulate all the competitors on reaching the finals and hope that a good number of spectators will come along to enjoy the weekend’s bowling. Unfortunately Jason Laurence has contracted Covid and had to concede the semi-final of the Men’s Handicap Singles. We wish Jason a speedy recovery.
End of Season – On Saturday 24th September we will hold a Fun Afternoon. Dress code is informal – come in whatever colour you like, the gaudier the better – and we will provide an afternoon of different activities with a bowling bias! Please come by 2pm for a 2.30pm start, and add your name to the list on the friendlies notice board to help with planning..
Our final bowls event of the season – President’s Day – will be held on the afternoon of 1st October. We will have an afternoon of bowling, followed by a buffet and the presentation of the trophies and prize money for the season. Dress code is whites for the bowling. Please put your name on the list on the notice board in the corridor leading to the toilets if you intend to come. There will be a charge of £5 for the afternoon to cover the cost of the buffet, with any surplus going to the club’s charity for this year, the North London Hospice. Please contact Janice Ford if you are able to help contribute some food for the buffet. Any prizes towards a raffle would be very welcome.
Other Competitions and Leagues – Two other club competitions have been completed in the last couple of weeks. On August Bank Holiday, 29th August, the Bob Sawyer Trophy was won by Bill Brewer, Barry Brennan, Liam Murphy and Gordon Greenfield. On the following Saturday we held the Aussie Pairs competition, with AnneBurnham and Terry Lovell beating Kay Comer and Peter Daley in the final. Again, it was good to see so many members taking part, and that our newest lady full-playing member (Kay) reached the final playing with our oldest member (Peter).
The finals of the competitions organised by the Finchley and North London Association were held on Saturday 20th August and Oak Hill had a good representation. Mike Marques had reached the final of the singles competition and David Bowler was in the final of the Tudor Cup (the Champion of Champions competition). Unfortunately, both Mike and David were the runners-up, losing to players from Grovelands. Gordon Greenfield’s team reached the final of the triples competition, but Gordon succumbed to Covid the day before the final. However, John Abson was able to play as a substitute and, together with Martin Williams and Ron Fry, they beat a team from Finchley in the final. All our competitors were very grateful for the number of supporters from Oak Hill who came along on the day.
Our ladies and men’s teams both qualified for the South area finals of the Hertfordshire County League, something we had not achieved for a few years. The finals were played at Harpenden and both our teams lost their semi-finals to the eventual winners – Hatfield in the case of the ladies – and Welwyn Garden City for the men.
The Oak Hill Vets League team, managed by Terry Lovell, eventually finished third in this very competitive league, with Broomfield ending up as winners and Winchmore Hill as runners-up. These were the only two teams to have beaten Oak Hill in the entire season.
In a very close finish to the Day Cup our team were able to retain the trophy on shots scored, having finished level with Barnet on games won and shot difference.
Our ladies have occasionally had difficulty raising teams for some of their league matches, particularly the St Albans & District Triples league. However, their results in the Brigg League have been better than recent years and Sheila Bowler has qualified for the final of the S.A.D. Officers Singles competition, which will be played on Sunday 11th September at Potters Bar. Congratulations to Sheila, who has enjoyed a successful season, also reaching the semi-final of the S.A.D. Champion of Champions Singles competition.
Our Open Triples league on Tuesday morning is progressing well under the management of Gordon Greenfield. Two further rounds of matches are still to be played, concluding with the presentation lunch after the final matches on the 20th September. With just these two rounds of matches to be played, the winning team is still very much in the balance.
A number of our members will be taking part in the popular Finchley Bowls Week from the 12th to the 16th September and we wish them good luck in their respective competitions.
Social – Thursday club-nights continue to be very popular, particularly the barbecue suppers. However, we would remind members to put their names on the relevant list by the Tuesday preceding club-night if they wish to come along. Also, if members do not turn up for the supper when they have ordered one, we would expect them to contribute towards the cost of the food.
During the close season the Cribbage and Bridge groups will continue to meet on Monday and Wednesday mornings respectively. Indeed, members of the cribbage group will be competing in a local cribbage league on Monday nights and we wish them every success. The Wednesday afternoon Games Afternoon will be re-starting at the beginning of October and continuing throughout the autumn and winter months.
We hope to organise a number of social occasions when members can meet during the autumn and winter. These are likely to include an event for Halloween, a Christmas dinner and further events in the Spring. Details will be announced over the next few weeks.
Club AGM – At a recent committee meeting David Conway presented provisional accounts for the club. Our accounting year ends at the end of October, but figures to date show that the club is likely to show a surplus for this year. Detailed accounts will be presented at the club AGM at 11am on Saturday 3rd December. Please reserve the date.
The AGM is also the opportunity for the club members to elect its officers for the next year. A form for nominations is on the notice board in the corridor leading to the toilets. Two of the current committee have indicated that they do not wish to continue in their roles. Tom Hobden is retiring from his role as Property Manager after serving in this capacity for many years. Tom has managed the repairs and maintenance work in the clubhouse and saved the club an enormous amount of money because of his efforts. He will be missed, but has indicated that he will be pleased to advise and help anyone who takes on this role in the future. Tom will also continue on the group advising the committee about our plans for a new clubhouse.
Jill Jordan will be stepping down from the role of Ladies’ Captain, having served in this capacity for three years. We are again very grateful for all her efforts in this role. Jill is prepared to continue in the role of Bar Manager, one that she has so capably stepped into this last year.
New Clubhouse – We are continuing our efforts to agree plans for building a new clubhouse. Having had a negative response from Barnet’s Planning department to our pre-planning submission for a new 2-storey clubhouse, the committee has agreed to proceed with a formal planning application for a single-storey building. We are approaching 2 separate companies for a quote for this work and hope that we will be able to give more details of our plans at the AGM in December.
East Barnet School – Although our project with East Barnet school this year was curtailed to 3 training sessions due to the other commitments of the year-10 students, the initiative was very well received by the students and the teachers. Indeed, some of the students have been coming to the club during the summer months and into the new term. The PE teachers are very keen to extend the initiative next year and a preliminary meeting has explored the possibility of us providing training for the entire summer term, starting almost as soon as the club opens at the end of April. Exact details are yet to be agreed, but will be finalised well in advance of our publishing our club fixture card for next year.
First Aid Training – We are very grateful to Jim McGregor who gave an excellent training session on basic first aid and, in particular, the use of the defibrillator that the club has purchased.
Club Shirts / Jackets – We have now received our latest order for club shirts, so have a good supply of shirts of various sizes. If any member requires a shirt, please see John Abson. The club is maintaining its policy of providing a free shirt to all new full-playing members.
The Green – We have been a bit disappointed with the condition of the green this year, which has obviously been an exceptionally hot summer. At a recent committee meeting, after Terry Doe had met with ASM representatives, we have agreed to take two particular steps to improve the quality of the green for next year. Instead of the usual 3 tons of top dressing that the company applies to the green during the autumn renovation work, we have agreed that they will apply 5 tons. This should help with levelling the surface.
In addition, we have asked that ASM verticut the green at 2-week intervals throughout the season next year. The aim of this is to remove any excess thatch from the surface and should therefore improve the speed on the green. We aim to liaise much more closely with ASM, and SJS who support our watering system, in order to maintain the quality of the green at a consistently high level.
Lockers – We are still hoping to buy new lockers for the ladies and men’s changing rooms before next year. The detailed specification will depend on our clubhouse plans. However, we would ask that all members clear their lockers of any equipment at the end of the season. Nearer the time we will let you know the arrangements for allocating new lockers to all our bowling members.
With best wishes to you all – we hope you enjoy the rest of this season’s bowling and that you have a happy and healthy remainder of the year.
John