December Report 2009

The last month of a very comprehensive bowling year and trust you have enjoyed reading the monthly reports. If there is anything   that I have missed, I apologise profusely. Unfortunately because of very heavy rain the Miraflores Open Pairs was postponed. However it has been re-scheduled for the 8th and 9th March. Thanks to Pat and Alan Beattie who took on the long job of preparing the scorecards for the competition, that will not now be wasted.
Therefore the only competition to report on is the Palace Cup Handicap Singles. The   competition was again well supported with thirty-six members taking part, each being awarded a handicap dependant on current skill sets. A full account of this game and all others that have taken place during 2009 can be read with accompanying photographs on our website. bowlingalmeria.com. In the semis, Patsy Tonkin beat Mike Hendry and Colin Wright beat John Compton. This set up a memorable final and although Colin Wright was the victor, he had to work very hard to conquer Patsy.
On Tuesday evening on the 8th December the AGM took place and was poorly supported. Because of the many members who live off the camp, it was decided by the club officers and supported by those members attending, that next year the AGM will be held on Tuesday or Thursday after the roll up. We trust this will solve the problem of getting an acceptable forum. The new members who join the committee are Brian Saunders as Fixture Secretary and Ann Tuplin as Social Secretary. The only other change was yours truly taking the additional duties of Competition Secretary. Anthony Jackson thanked all the committee for their hard work during the year. He also read through our clubs healthy financial situation, which was ably produced by Ray Wolverson who was absence due to personal reasons. Our Capitan, Jim Pike was his normal enthusiastic self, giving lots of thanks to various club members for their efforts during the year by assisting him in the current success of our bowling club. Special thanks to Terry Rodgers for his years of green keeper duties and Les Pratchett, who has kindly taken over this job. Jim was too modest to mention the huge amount of work he himself has done to help Les bring the greens to a very acceptable standard. Thanks also to Anthony for his support to the boys. It was also decided by the attending members that the charity our club will this year support would be Macmillan Cancer, instead of Asprodalba. Many thanks to Ray and Siobhan Herrity who have been involved in Asprodalba for many years and have now decided to retire.
Friendly bets were lost due to Jim’s address taking as long if not longer than yours truly when I was Captain!
Our Presentation Dinner and Dance evening on 17th December was not supported well, especially  members who were winners and runners up in the club competitions. As it was, those who had made the effort enjoyed themselves. Special thanks to Ann Tuplin for her organisation, Catherine Patrick for running the raffle and Shirley Jackson for her part providing the bar and catering staff. Unfortunately our Chairman Anthony was not very well and Shirley felt she was unable to attend because of looking after the invalid. The Vice Chairman, yours truly, was there and Jim kindly invited my wife Joan to do the honours of presenting the cups to the winners. Thanks also to Roy Tonkin who took his normal duties of the resident David Bailey in his stride taking photos of the presentations which you can view on our website. Whilst writing on this subject I trust all finalists enjoyed their personal photographs in the prize envelopes and the display of winners in the clubhouse. Thanks also to the assistance I had from Graham Patrick in fixing our new Roll of Honour board also in the clubhouse, which I have now fully updated
All that remains is to wish everyone a great holiday period and to keep focused for a very full 2010-fixture calendar

Vic Parsons
ALBC Press Officer