I am writing my article early as I will be away at the beginning of September. The summer appears to have deserted us as the days have cooled down a lot and the evenings are even cooler. By the time you read this that may have changed but it does feel like autumn has come early, anyway I had better continue with my article.
Our friendly league fixtures continue with a marked improvement in results winning our last three matches. Regardless of the results we still have a lot of fun competing against neighbouring villages with lots of laughs throughout the evening making for a very sociable friendly time which is enjoyed by all.
Our new internal bowls competition The Sylvia and Alf Goodwin Cup is progressing very well. The format means that we compete in randomly drawn teams of three with a total of eight teams doing battle in two leagues with the winners of each league playing the final against each other for the honour of winning the new trophy. Recently Sylvie and her daughter paid us a visit one afternoon to see old friends and to see the trophy she so kindly donated in memory of Alf. Everyone was so pleased to see her again and we are hopeful that she will present the trophy to the winners on finals day. Big thanks go again to Roger Smith who has spent many hours putting together the format of the competition with all the required administration making the competition run very smoothly and efficiently.
We again set up one of our mats in the community hall on the day of the annual Great Notley Village Fete in July. The idea of this was so that anyone could come along and for a small fee try their hand with a little instruction at getting four woods close to the jack (that small white ball!) I have to say that a number of people young and old tried their luck but the winner with the best score was a young lady by the name of Darcey. Big congratulations to Darcey for winning the competition and to all the people who contributed to the fun on the day.
We have a number of social events planned in the coming months. In September we have a day out at Chelmsford Races arranged for 22 club members/wives/partners. The trip last year proved very enjoyable so we are expecting this one to be just as good. We will probably be visiting a restaurant in Braintree around October time and then we have our annual dinner arranged in November at Gosfield Golf Club.
I always end my article by letting you know that we play at Notley Green Community Centre on Monday and Thursday afternoons between 1.15 and 3.45pm. Please come along and give it a go you will be made very welcome. I have mentioned above about friendlies and competitions we are involved in but if you simply want to have fun a couple of afternoons a week playing amongst friends without the competitive angle that is absolutely fine.
Ray Hall