Ormskirk Bowling Club

Please see below the proposed structure of the above competition. If you wish to register your interest please contact Steve James via the contact details indicated in the e-mail sent to all members.

Winter members singles league/s

League Administrators: Steve James, Dave Roper and Martin Roberts

Eligibility: OBC winter or full members only

Duration: Commence 10th October conclude by 31st March

Format: Membership capped at 14 players per league

League structure: If more than 14 people wish to play we may create a second league with
promotion and relegation. The Administrators would decide who played in which league.

No. of matches: Members would be required to commit to playing everybody in the league once, i.e.
to playing 13 matches during the 6 month period – one match a fortnight.

Arranging matches: A fixture list will be produced with each player scheduled to play one game
every 2 weeks. A ‘Winter Singles League’ WhatsApp group will be established to help people contact
each other to arrange times to play.

Scoring / points system:
 3 points – match winner
 1 point to the loser if they score 15 points or more

Recording of results: Dedicated section of the noticeboard created in the clubhouse. Players to write
the results up at the end of each game. Steve / Dave will produce an updated table to show games
played, positions, etc. and place this on the noticeboard once a fortnight. The table and results will
also be available on a dedicated ‘Winter Singles League’ part of the website.

Player gets behind with fixtures:
If a player is unable to play a match they must re-arrange it as quickly as possible and let the League
Administrators know the re-scheduled date.
The Administrators will contact players who have not played their fixtures or contacted with details
of re-arranged dates.
If a player has played fewer than half of their scheduled fixtures by the end of January they will be
removed from the league. All results relating to that player would be removed in full including points
gained by their opponents. The table would look as if the player had never been involved.

League winner:
 The player with the most points wins the league. In the event that two or more players are
level on points, the player will the most number of wins will be champion. If still level, the
player with the highest average aggregate points difference will be champion. In the very unlikely event that two players cannot be separated a ‘final’ match or matches will be
arranged.

Winter Ladder
I would suggest two changes to the Ladder:

1. It does not lead to a finals morning – the ladder leader at the end of March is the winner.
2. It is not administered on the website but self-administered by the members. This could be
   via a simple ‘clothes peg’ ladder in the clubhouse, with members moving themselves up the
   ladder after winning a game. The clothes peg could have the players initials on. Matches
   could continue to be arranged through the WhatsApp group with phone numbers / contact
   details given to members in advance of the season.
3. Everyone starts at the base of the ladder.

Congratulations to our two Senior Citizen (over 55) teams who have taken first and second spots in the Aughton Senior Citizens League. The final games of the season were played today and it has been confirmed that the team led by Nick Slater finished top, with Alan Bellis’ Academy team finishing in second spot. The League Champions finished on a massive 256 points, with the Academy second on 201 points, just pipping Sandbrook Park who got 199 points. Also congratulations should go to Alan Bellis who topped the averages for the division.

Both teams ‘retired’ to the Cricket Club Pavilion to celebrate after the matches (pictured along with the team pictures below). A big thanks to those who supplied the food, and it was a great social event.

The Club has been notified of the following arrangements for Ken Knowles’ Funeral. 

Thornton Garden of Rest
Thursday 29 September, 11:15am

Dress code: smart casual and with something blue (no matter how small but only if you have it)
Flowers: from family only. Funeral followed by family only wake.

Eric has arranged for some considerable works to our grass green in October. Help is needed on certain days as set out below. Please pop these dates in your diaries and come along and help if you can, even if you are just brewing up for the others! Keep your eye out for any updates on the website.

11th	Delivery of “backfill” material, approx 190, 25kg bags, time to be confirmed	Help required to unload and store in shelters
13th	Arrival of Ecosol, set up ready to “Drill & Fill”Time to be confirmed	Help required to keep hopper filled with backfill
14th	2nd day may be required to complete work!
15th	Clear residue material from green, move to edge to cover carpet, bag excess material for use to cover after over seeding	Help required to remove excess material.Snow shovels ideal

Similar to previous years, the Maghull Winter League will commence on
Tue 27SEP22 and will run on the OBC Artificial Green from 11:00 until
approx 15:30 each Tuesday through the winter. Please see the OBC
Calendar on our website for details on when our greens are in use (
https://ormskirkbowlingclub.wordpress.com/calendar/)

The Club has just made a donation of £303.00 to the Mel Evans MBE Foundation to help with research into Motor Neurone Disease. With an additional £75.75 of Gift Aid this brings the total up to £378.75. Thank you to all those who attended our fundraising evening and also those who donated afterwards. Those who did the walk to cover 14 crown green counties in 14 days deserve so much credit for what they have achieved. The total raised so far is £13,824 and that is sure to grow as further monies come in.

A big thank you also to The Cricketers in Ormskirk and Booths of Ormskirk who donated vouchers for the raffle or to be given as prizes and also Aughton Institute who hosted us and also provided a raffle prize. They supported us so please support these great businesses.

The Champion of Champions competition is to be held at Monk Sports & Social Club, Warrington, next Saturday. Play starts at 10am. The draw and address are shown on the flyer below. It promises to be a great day’s bowling, with a chance to see all the top players in action. If anyone fancies going along we may be able to sort out lifts, Ian Gill will be attending.

The Club is extremely sad to announce the passing of Ken Knowles, who died last Thursday (8th September) following an accident from which he could not recover. Ken was the Club’s first Treasurer from its formation in 2013, until he handed over the reins just about 3 years ago to Martin Roberts. He made a massive contribution to the Club in its initial years and helped steer us through the setting up of the Club. He had previously acted as the Treasurer at the Windmill Bowling Club, working across the road at the Borough Council Offices.

Ken had not really played in the last couple of years as he was devoting more time to his family, but had previously played for one of our Wednesday night teams. He was very much a family man and will be sorely missed by his wife Jacqui and his two children, David and Kerri. In fact David, along with Ken, helped to erect our away hut by the artificial green when it was brought from the Windmill.

Details of Ken’s funeral will be posted once we have them, and we will hold a minute’s silence tomorrow night at our social event at Aughton Institute to remember Ken.

Just to let everyone know that our charity fundraising night on Thursday (15th) evening has been confirmed for Aughton Institute at 7pm. Please arrive for around 6.50pm and come armed with a few pounds to spend on the quiz, raffle, horse racing and, most importantly, Julie and Pauline’s famous Bingo!!

We will also have a cake sale if anyone would like to bring any home baked cakes and please bring any raffle prizes if you have anything to spare. Anyone is welcome to come along as all monies raised will go to the charity.

Not for the first time this year we have been contacted by the cricket club to advise that on a number of occasions cars have been driving at excessive speeds past the cricket club. As a reminder the speed limit is 5mph and there are frequently times when young children are playing and could be vulnerable.

We are dependent on the cricket club for access to our club across their land and at present we are reliant on their permission. If this persists we run the risk of being unable to park outside our green and have to park on the road which will cause additional congestion.

Please respect the limits in place and rest assured that we will be asking all the league representatives to cascade this message to all visiting teams.

Thank you.