News

It’s all over. But it’s not good news. We ended bottom of the league. It started badly with a 0-5 defeat at Heckmondwike and it ended badly with a 0-5 defeat at Leeds. In between there were some good results but overall we won 12 games out of 40 and deserved last place. Mirfield rose from last to 3rd and Heckmondwike just beat Leeds by 1 game to win the league. We had good and experienced players at all our fixtures but didn’t play well enough to win games. There’s always next year to look forward to. Thanks to all players who played in the league team. This is a competition we were minutes away from winning a couple of years ago. Let’s do better next year. congratulations Heckmondwike,

When we started we had no strings. As we grew and held competitions we added strings around the perimeter and also between pistes. Then we removed most of the strings between pistes and left the perimeter strings. Today all the strings went. Some pegs came out; some pegs stayed in but the strings went.It wasn’t an easy decision. At a committee meeting last week we considered all the options and there were many of them. On one hand perimeter strings were good and we felt we needed them for bigger events. Other clubs almost all had perimeter strings. On the other hand some members had tripped up and fallen on our perimeter strings. No major damage but any fall when you’re over 60 isn’t much fun.

One problem was that our terrain once levelled is now as wavy as Liberace’s hairpiece. In some places strings span a 4m gap 20mm above the ground. Some are buried in gravel. It just ain’t flat. Visits to other clubs show little evidence of tripping up on strings but the evidence at Greenhead Park was building up.

So we’re not having strings unless there’s a big event and we only anticipate half a dozen of these a year. Today’s melee went fine – no strings and no problems. We’re looking at alternatives to strings and it seems at the Marseille event currently being played that they manage with football style white lines. We’ll keep monitoring the situation.

What do you think? String puns welcome. As long as they’re about string.

Hot; 18 people. Winner Paul, 2nd Christine A, 3rd Phil, 4th Robin were the only ones to win 3 games. Paul leaps up the table. Rita has a bad day at the terrain.

Player	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Total	Adj
Richard	10	9.5	10				29.5	29.5
Paul	13			13			26	26
Rita S	9		12				21	21
Maureen	3.5	8	6	7			24.5	21
Christine K		11	8.5				19.5	19.5
Roger L		5	13				18	18
Marie	11	6.5					17.5	17.5
Nigel		0	8.5	9			17.5	17.5
Sue	3.5	6.5	7	1.5			18.5	17
Robin	7			10			17	17
Amanda		12	4.5				16.5	16.5
Christine A		3		12			15	15
Kevin		9.5		5			14.5	14.5
Roy		13					13	13
Reg	12						12	12
Phil			1	11			12	12
Yvonne			11				11	11
Bob	8	0	2				10	10
Fred	5.5	4					9.5	9.5
Brendan	0	0		8			8	8
Pauline			3	3			6	6
Sandra B				6				6
Margaret	5.5						5.5	5.5
Mary		0	4.5				4.5	4.5
Malcolm				4				4
Rita P	2						2	2
Barrie		2					2	2
Elaine				1.5				1.5
Sandie	1		0				1	1
Jack		1					1	1
Pete	0						0	0
Michael		0					0	0
Alasdair		0	0				0	0
David W			0				0	0

 

Recently there have been times when no keyholder was at the terrain at the start time. There are good reasons for this. Keyholders (AKA committee members) are human; they have families to look after, grandchildren to babysit and holidays to enjoy.

Sometimes they have to visit doctors or hospitals for minor or maybe major health issues. They also have emergencies which crop up and disrupt their routine.

It doesn’t affect most members apart from the lack of rings and scorers as they have their own boules and can play without rings and scorers but it’s better if the shed is open. When new clubhouse arrives there may be times when someone wants a rest and a sit down and a cuppa out of the rain/sun* (delete as appropriate).

So at a recent committee meeting we agreed that we should establish a rota so every club session would have a key holder present. We have already lined up a committee member to handle big events (see calendar) but we feel we need to bring it in now for every session.

Here’s the monthly melees up to the end of the year

MONTHLY MELEES	PS	RH	RS	BC	FT
Sunday, 1 July 2018	Y	N	Y	Y
Sunday, 5 August 2018	Y		Y	N
Sunday, 2 September 2018	Y	Y	Y	N
Sunday, 7 October 2018	Y	Y	Y
Sunday, 4 November 2018	N		Y
Sunday, 2 December 2018	N		Y

and here’s July club sessions.

	PS	RH	RS	BC	FT
Sunday, 1 July 2018	Y	N	Y	Y	Y
Tuesday, 3 July 2018	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Sunday, 8 July 2018	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Tuesday, 10 July 2018	N	Y	Y	N	Y
Sunday, 15 July 2018	N	Y	Y	N	Y
Tuesday, 17 July 2018	N	Y	Y	N	Y
Sunday, 22 July 2018	Y	N	N	N	N
Tuesday, 24 July 2018	N	Y	Y	N	Y
Sunday, 29 July 2018	Y	Y	Y	N	Y
Tuesday, 31 July 2018	Y	Y	Y	N	Y

You’ll have noticed that Thursday doesn’t get a key holder. The afternoon session is still unofficial but popular and members have managed well but the evening session despite being requested at meetings recently is often very low numbers or no numbers so we are considering making these unofficial as well. Competitions allocated to Thursday can’t run with low numbers and members are voting with their feet and choosing Thursday afternoon. With more committee members we could service both Thursday sessions but we have to work with what we’ve got. This will be updated as necessary. Keep looking at this post.

This Sunday is monthly members melee. If anyone would like to learn how to run this style of competition this is your chance to give it a try. An experienced member will be on hand to make sure it all works out but it’s a useful skill to learn.

Talk to a committee member on the day. We can take a few who want to have a go. No preparation required. Just be there on the day. You can play as well.