Category: General News

Dear members

A big hello to you all , I hope you are all keeping safe and that you are enjoying the mostly good weather.

I would like to thank all of you who sent a reply to my previous Newsletter in early May. Your messages of support are greatly appreciated .

So what’s been happening since the last communication.

All of our staff are still Furloughed.
Michelle and Kim are still volunteering their free time to running the food service, although customers’ orders have diminished and therefore the service will be operating on a much reduced scale . Michelle will be sending out a separate e mail soon.

Peter Reynolds has been cleaning the Bowls Carpet on a regular basis and also cleaned the Bowls mats , thank you Peter.

We applied for a grant of over £11000 from Sport England which allowed us to claim every day running expenses of the club between 1st March and 31st July . Hoping that we may be awarded somewhere near £4000 , which is about the average that they have been awarding, we are delighted to say that we have been granted £9194 , way more than our expectations. We are still waiting for this to land in our bank account, but have been assured it will arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks to Liz for helping me prepare the application .

I feel that we received this amount as the club now supports all aspects of the community including people who are visually impaired and people with dementia. Along with the £25000 government grant this will financially help us through the Summer and round to October.

Last Monday I received an email from the English Indoor Bowls Association , our governing body . This email contained an extensive and comprehensive document on Guidance to opening up indoor Bowls Clubs. Although not guaranteed they indicated that the government may give the green light to opening up Indoor bowls clubs early in July. Good news indeed if the Country behaves itself.

So we have to prepare for a possible reopening , something I’m sure a lot of you would like.

Last Thursday we held a committee meeting and agreed to move forward with safety measures to protect our members. We will form sub committees so that we can cover all aspects of safety and how the Bowling Green will operate.

If and when the club opens it will not be as we know it.

We will be relying on you our members to adhere strictly to all the measures that will be in place. If we do this there should be no reason why our members could not return to bowling safely.

Some of the measures would involve a one way system in and out of the club with directional signage, the closure of the changing rooms and lockers would no longer be able to be used.

Once all of these measures and all decisions have been agreed I will send out further emails keeping you up to date with progress.

Other measures may include the introduction of a voucher system for green fees, we are also trialling an online rink booking system. They are necessary to avoid contact by hand on materials.

At this time we can only communicate with you via an online newsletter. If you know of any member that is not online could you please print and pass this email on to them.

One thing I am sure of, having spoken to many of you during lockdown, is that you all miss the friendship and companionship that the club provides. Hopefully we can open up soon and renew our acquaintances.

Best Regards
Dave Parks
Chairman

Dear members

We are pleased to be able to offer our members a shopping service during these challenging times.

We have put out to all our email receivers a ‘shopping list’, items can be ordered, collected or delivered.

This message is to try and reach those members not on email. If you know of a member who may need our help please do not hesitate to contact the club on 01323 506009 or email email hidden; JavaScript is required and we will do our best to support them.

Keep safe and well

Dave Parks
Chairman

L-R Steve Bain, Roger Cable, John Cable

Yesterday, 15/03/2020 saw our Men’s Triples, Steve Bain, Roger Cable & John Cable play in the Men’s County Finals at Arun.

They all played well but unfortunately on end 14 when the score stood at 9 – 9 they dropped a 3 and eventually lost 15 – 9.

John Cable received his County Badge and due to his excellent performance he has been invited for county trials next season.

For County fixtures, leagues and competitions see http://www.sciba.net  

L-R Sophie, Dave Buttle, Freddie

Sophie & Freddie Cable both played in the finals of the Sussex Junior County Finals at Horsham I.B.C, 8th March.

Both of them improved on last year’s results. In the singles Sophie won 1, drew 1 and lost 1 whilst Freddie won all his 3 games, in the skills Sophie scored 25 points and Freddie scored 45 points.

In the previous 2 season’s Freddie has won the singles once and the skills once, both times coming out overall champion but this year he took ALL 3, Singles, Skills and Overall Champion, a great performance.

I’m very proud to be their coach and to see that the work they have put in paid off, this is great for our club.

Freddie will now go on to represent Sussex in the Area Finals at Horsham I. B. C. on the 19th April.

Congratulations to both Sophie and Freddie for what they have achieved so far and good luck to Freddie in the Area Finals in April.

Dave Buttle.
Junior coach

The Management Committee are pleased to be able to welcome Eleanor and Milvydas to our bowls club to enable them to carry out their work placement. Although our club is small compared to many other sports facilities in the local area we are confident that they will have many opportunities to undertake all the necessary tasks and duties to gain hands on knowledge and experience in business management. We expect them to be committed to the hours they must complete and to take every task or project seriously. We also look forward to teaching them the game and introducing them to our members.

Hello, my name is Eleanor. My sporting background is mainly derived from Tennis, through playing, volunteering and coaching for six years. I currently play for the University of Brighton Women’s 1st Tennis Team. I spend my summers teaching tennis and looking after 7-9-year-old girls at a summer camp in Maine, USA. I am keen to learn and transfer my knowledge from my sporting background whilst further expanding my depth of knowledge in a sport I have never tried and helping to positively promote the business. I’m excited to learn about a new sport and to apply my theoretical knowledge from my course to EDIBA. I’m looking forward to meeting and talking to you so if you see me around the club, please come and introduce yourself!

Hello, my name is Milvy and I am currently a 2nd year student at the university of Brighton. As part of my course I have been given the opportunity to complete a 300 hour work placement at this beautiful bowls club. My sporting background comes from football. I had the opportunity to represent my country (You’ll have to ask me to find out where I’m from) at international level for many years whilst still playing at semi-professional level. My background of interest is business and I am really looking forward to learning how to run a successful sports club.
I am looking forward to meeting you all, so please, don’t be shy come and introduce yourself.

Dear Members

During these challenging times I would like to keep you informed of the monitoring and planning the club has put into place to ensure every effort is made to protect the health and welfare of all our members, staff and visitors at our club.

Currently we are following NHS guidelines to ensure that personal hygiene is kept at the highest level we can manage. Signs are visible to remind all users of our club to wash hands for the recommended 20 seconds, We have put sanitisers on rink tables, at the restaurant servery and on the bar in addition to the two dispensers we have had for some time situated in the entrance and as you enter the restaurant. We have increased the cleaning programme of sanitising door handles and handrails.

The E.I.B.A has also provided guidelines including no handshaking, it’s a natural response when meeting players, but we can see everyone is doing their best to keep our club free from infection.
With regard to travelling to countries affected with Coronavirus and are classed as high risk, please consider that even on your return and having no symptoms, that you may feel it appropriate to stay away from the bowls club for 14 days. This will help protect our members, especially as most of us are in the high-risk age group. If you would like to discuss this on your return from travelling please telephone the club to speak to Naomi. You may not be aware that we have recently requested that one of our kitchen staff, who returned from Thailand and Malaysia 10 days ago without symptoms, will not return to work for 14 days.

Currently we are confident that all planned bowling and social events will continue unless we hear from NHS/E.I.B.A that we need to make changes.

We will continue to monitor the NHS website every day to ensure we are keeping up with current guidelines and notify you by email, posters and notices on tables as soon as we know more.

Best regards
Dave Parks
Chairman

The EIBA have issued the following statement of advise regarding Coronavirus.

As a club we will be following the recommendations inline with the other practises we have already put in place such as extra hand sanitisers around the club including one at the end of every rink and we will be carrying out additional sanitising cleaning to reassure our members.

Statement
Coronavirus (COVID-19)
The English Indoor Bowling Association has been monitoring the situation regarding Coronavirus and following the publishing of the UK Governments’ plan, yesterday, wish to advise its Clubs, County Associations and Indoor bowlers of the following:

The EIBA are following the advice of Public Health England in the current plans for containment of the virus. As such we would advise clubs and bowlers, if not already doing so to implement: –

• Regular washing of hands

• Use of alcohol-based hand sanitisers

• Cough or sneeze into tissues which are then binned.

• Don’t touch your face unless you have washed your hands.

• Self isolation if the member believes they may have the symptoms.

In relation to the customary handshake at the start and end of matches, the EIBA recommend that this courtesy does not take place until the situation has improved.