Ormskirk Bowling Club

Merry Christmas to all our Members and bowlers everywhere.

1st Prize John Reese £40

2nd Prize Alan Bellis £25

Congratulations to this month’s winners. The draw was conducted at the club yesterday by Aaron Backhouse. To those existing and new members who would like to support the club, details to join and pay £5 a month per ticket are on the 100 Club tab on the club website. Your contributions are/will be greatly appreciated.

We are going to be holding a Spring Pairs Handicap Knockout Competition starting in January. The competition is open to all winter and full members, and we hope that the handicap element will give all members an equal chance of competing. We ask interested members to enter the competition as pairs, however if you would like to enter but do not have a partner then we will endeavour to pair you up with other individual entrants. The format will be of a similar vein to the Winter Singles Handicap Knockout as follows:

• Each individual player will be allocated a handicap according to their Winter Singles League division. Anyone entering who isn’t in the Winter Singles League will be allocated a handicap.
• The individual handicap value will be: Division 3 players = +4, Division 2 players = +2, Divisions 1 players = 0.
• The handicaps will then be added together to give each pair a combined handicap (eg a pair consisting of a Division 2 player and a Division 3 player will start with +6 on the card, two Division 2 players with +4 on the card, two Division 1 players will start from 0, etc.
• All games are 21 up with the winning pair progressing to the next round. Number of rounds will be determined by the number of entries. Matches will be drawn out of a hat.

If you would like to enter please either email or message Dave Roper stating your name and your partner’s name on roperda@gmail.com or 07962 014149 by 31^st December. Messages sent using existing WhatsApp groups may be missed, so please only send a direct message and you will then receive a confirmation reply. We hope there will be as many entries as possible and most of all, good luck!

1st Prize Haydn Preece £40

2nd Prize Frank Rogers £25

Congratulations to this month’s winners. The draw was conducted at Friday’s presentation night by Jackie Denning.

To those existing and new members who would like to support the club, details to join and pay £5 a month per ticket are on the 100 Club tab on the club website. Your contributions are/will be greatly appreciated.

Around 40 members attended the above event on Friday to celebrate the club’s most successful year.

The presentation of trophies (see pictures below) was followed by the various captains talking about their team’s season and a raffle was conducted for prizes kindly donated by members.

Some highly competitive fun bowls games brought the evening to a close and we would like to thank the cricket club for hosting the event and all the members who attended for their support.

The Club will be holding its annual Presentation Night this coming Friday (24th November). It will start at 7.30pm, but the room will be open from 7.15pm for drinks. The Club has had its most successful season ever and all our Members are invited to come along and hear how our teams and individual players have done in all the various leagues and competitions, as well as the awards given by the Club to various Members for their achievements. Please could all Captains bring along any trophies that their team was awarded if they are currently holding them.

The Presentation Night will be held upstairs in the Cricket Club’s Function Room. In addition to all the presentations there will be a raffle and a couple of bowls games to take part in. If Members have any raffle prizes they could bring along please do so.

It should be a great evening so please come along, have a great social night and support your Club, we look forward to seeing you there.

We are going to have a winter singles handicap knockout competition starting in November. It is open to all winter members and our full members. It is a chance for members to meet and it would be great if we had lots of entrants.

The handicap works as follows: Each entrant will be allocated a handicap. If you currently play in Winter Singles League Division 3 your handicap is +8. If you play in Division Two your handicap is +4. If you are in Div 1 you do not have a handicap. Matches will be drawn out of a hat. If a player from Div 3 is drawn to play a Div 1 player, the Div 3 player starts with 8 on the card. If a Div 3 player plays a Div 2 player, they start with 4 on the card. Games are 21 Up. Winner progresses, loser is out. Anyone entering who isn’t in the Winter League will be allocated a handicap.

If you want to enter please email Steve James (james.s52sky.com@sky.com) by 10th November please. Once we know how many entrants we have we can work out the number of rounds to be played. We will probably give one month for you to arrange and play each round. We will progress to a final in March. Steve will set up a WhatsApp group to make arranging the games easy. Hope you enter and good luck. 

The Cricket Club is holding its annual bonfire and fireworks this coming Saturday evening – it is a great event if members want to attend.

As a result of this car access into to the Cricket Club will be restricted on Saturday, so bowlers will need to park nearby on Altys Lane.

On Sunday morning the green will be closed until the firework residue has been cleared from the green. Please do not attempt to bowl until it is cleared – the residue is usually in the form of clumps of orange residue and it is not pleasant to touch or if it gets on your bowls it can stain.

The seniors’ presentation day for the 2023 season took place at Aughton Institute on Wednesday 18th October. With Ormskirk Bowing Club receiving the Div 2 winners shield. Also Nick Slater & Dave Hulse were presented with the pairs winners shield.

Congratulations to all players – none of them look a day over 55 so how they get away with competing in that league we just don’t know😀! The team is looking forward to 2024.

It is great to see so many members enjoying their bowling. Most of the time there is room on the green for everyone to play. However, on occasions there may be too many people for everyone to bowl. We would like to introduce the following arrangements at busy times. If they don’t work we will bring in the online booking system we used during Covid. We would rather not do so because of the additional costs to the club and the effort involved for all.

Arrangements:

1. Maximum of 5 blocks on the green at any time.
2. If no one is waiting you can stay on as long as you want.
3. If it is a friendly game please give way to people waiting after you have played for one hour. You can always go back on after a break, if there is a slot.
4. People playing winter singles league games do not have priority over other people who are waiting. The people who have been waiting the longest, play first.
5. However, members playing winter singles league matches can play their matches to a conclusion, even if this exceeds one hour.

I’m sure that our members will be as considerate as ever and make sure everyone has a fair crack of the whip.
Best regards and enjoy your bowling. Steve