We hope everyone has settled down in their various teams and starting to enjoy themselves….
Firstly. It’s great to see so many new faces joining the Club and fitting in so well. The new teams that we submitted this year have started to show some promise. I appreciate that our Over 60’s B Team is finding life a bit of a struggle at the moment because of illnesses and holidays but hopefully everyone will be fit and raring to go one of these days and some team is going to find itself on the wrong end of the result card.
On a personal note. I have to raise my hat to the Over 60’s B Team. Despite all their setbacks they carry on regardless. For a team that is mostly learning the game it is humbling. What great spirit they all show. Keep it up fella’s it can only get better.
Our Open Competitions are setting a buzz around the Island. We have raised the bar in so many facets of the competitions and we hope that these changes are being well received.
With it being our 125th Anniversary this year, Douglas Corporation have kindly offered to allocate 2 silver cups to the Club. We intend to use these cups to replace 2 of our other Open Competitons. They will be known as the Douglas Mens Town Cup and of course… The Douglas Ladies Town Cup. (Or. A variation on that theme depending on what the Corporation would like to inscribe).
We are now getting support from the Manager of the Woodbourne Hotel who is kindly doing a meat draw every Friday evening. Proceeds are split between the Hyperbaric Chamber and Douglas Bowling Club for assistance to the Junior players that use our green every Saturday morning. Please support this fund raising quest. Douglas Bowling Club puts a lot of time and money into the preparation of the green to encourage these Juniors. Fund raising is a big part of our future. If we want to continue to have a good playing surface and updated surroundings then we need to raise that revenue from somewhere other than our annual subscriptions.
Work on the green has reached a ‘tipping point’. Over the coming months we have been advised to open up the turf to secure a healthy green. This requires the hire of a Supa Turfman machine once a month (£90 a pop) and subsequent top dressing with sports sand (1 ton a pop). This advice came to light after we had sent soil samples taken from the green to be analysed. It probably sounds worse that it is, but the work is not getting done for cosmetic reasons. The work needs to be carried out so that the green becomes receptive to water, fertiliser, seeding and pesticides. Here endeth the lesson on green maintenance.
On a lighter note. We’re now coming in to our Club Competition period. We decided to put the competions back because of lousy weather that has been with us for the start of this so called summer season.
The events are all well handicapped so everyone has a chance of winning these competitions. The Competition Secretary has organised replicas to go with these events so even getting to the semi finals will be a memorable occasion and something that can be kept as a memento of the day. We need your feet on the green to make these Club Competitions work so hopefully as many of you as possible will turn up and make it tough for the Minus Handicap players.
Everyone is aware of what is going on around the green and the work that is going on. Tommy has been a tremendous part of everything. Bear with us and we’ll try and make the area as smart as we can with our limited resources.
Don’t forget to check out our Facebook page at Douglas Bowling Club or our website at www.douglasbowlingclub.com Both of these sites are updated regularly.
Now then… A few of you have given your email addresses but to help us save a goodly sum of moolah on postage every couple of months we could do with everyone giving their email addresses to the Secretary so that email newsletters are sent out instead. I appreciate that many of you do not have email addresses so your newsletter will be sent by snail mail as usual.
Please give Secretary your email addresses. Thanks.
All that’s left to say is. Continue to enjoy your bowls. Our enthusiasm for the game is contagious and we receive quite a number of enquiries for new members for 2014. Well done everyone.
Keep smiling.
Good Luck to All The Teams
Douglas Bowling Club Committee