Thame Bowls Club is a very happy and successful club and whilst many bowls clubs are losing numbers or going out of business we still have well over 100 members.
We’ve had a very busy season when we hosted 3 county matches which, apart from giving us valuable revenue, ensures that we continue with the great reputation as a club that the county enjoy coming to. Not only do they play on one of the best greens in Oxfordshire but are guaranteed food and drink served at the highest standard and I must again thank everyone that helped to make them a complete success. Both Ruth, who looked after the county matches, and Jane whose team produced the wonderful dinners for the Men’s League matches. They will be a hard act to follow in 2018 but hopefully next year they will not have to be followed because we will try and persuade them to do it all again.
The success of the club depends on its volunteers and we are well blessed in this club with many people getting involved but I need more especially for cleaning. At the moment we have eleven groups of cleaners but I would like to make it up to 20 then everyone would only have to clean once a month at the most. I have a sheet here with the names of those who already clean but I need many more. I will pass the sheet around and would love to see a few extra names on it please.
We have 14 bar staff in the summer months-could do with a couple more and we do less than one shift a month in the winter and no more than twice a month in the summer. There is also a sheet being passed around for you to put your names on.
Consider the annual revenue the club gets from the volunteers. Cleaning-£1500, Bar £3000, Advertising Boards £2500 and Friday League £1500. A grand total of £8500. All achieved by volunteers some of whom multitask-how much easier it would be if just a few more came forward to help.
We also made £160 on the Waitrose Community Matters. Also a large article and pictures for Sport in Profile magazine who asked to use Thame Bowls Club as a good example of how the elderly kept fit and healthy and photos of the club and selected members which will be shown worldwide so all in all you can see we have a great club and we should all be justly proud of it. And the most exciting thing of all is the number of newer bowlers who are eager to continue to help the development of the club over the coming years.
Bill Giles OBE
Acting Chairman
Thame Bowls Club
