HORLEY BOWLING CLUB
MINUTES OF CLUB COMMITTEE MEETING
HELD AT 11 am ON MONDAY 31st JULY 2023 AT THE CLUBHOUSE
Present: L Cargill, B. Stent, T. Buckee, B. Farley, D. File, J. Ansell, P. Kimber, Alison Griffiths, B. Wilson, L. Conroy
- APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Ledwich, B. Stockwell, S. Aylin-White and I. Bennett had to leave before the meeting started due to being unwell.
- APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING:
The minutes of the meeting held on 26th June were approved. Proposed by Bob Stockwell and seconded by Brian Farley.
- MATTERS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETING:
The question of the honours board was raised and Tony Buckee informed the committee the Honours board had been updated but the person was in fact coming back to day for a couple of changes made.
- SECRETARY’S REPORT:
Bob advised all internal correspondence had been dealt with and the external correspondence had been emails from WSCSMBA the short mat association in connection, with the 2024 season including an increase in fees. All emails were passed on to the short mat captain and Vice-Captain.
- TREASURER’S REPORT:
Paul advised the bank balance was now reduced to £38,667.63 from £41,479.11. Expenditure of £3,918.00 for green preparation and purchase of club clothing of 1,725.00. However, income from the bar increased by about £2,000 over the purchase of bar stock. Paul raised the matter of the electricity contract coming to an end. Paul had a quote did we want to accept it? After discussion, Paul was asked to compare other options and report back at the next meeting. Paul asked where the charge for match tea/coffee, crisps and biscuits should be on the budget. It was agreed it should be under Catering. Paul was thanked for his report.
MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY’S REPORT:
Liz Conroy reported four full members had joined, three ladies and one man. One social member has joined, Mike Bradley. Club membership now stood at a total of 146 with 98 full playing members. Liz said she had prepared a draft membership renewal letter and form and will liaise with other prior to sending out which would begin In September. The majority will now go out by email, saving postage. Liz was thanked for her report.
GREEN/GROUND MANAGER’S REPORT:
Brian reported that once again the weather continued to be challenging. As a result, the green has been attacked by an invasive weed called pearl wort. Although it does not affect the playing surface it does spread easily and prevents grass growth. The only way to minimise is to treat with a herbicide which was carried out last week by a contact at Popes Mead who has the correct license for using herbicide. Brian said it will take time to contain the spread and he is considering applying for a herbicide license for future flexibility, cost to be confirmed. Brian said he would like to start the end of season work commencing the 25th September. More details at the next committee meeting. David File asked if surrounding boards to the green and their covering were to be replaced. David was told this is being considered because of their age. David also asked about the rats in the hedges at the far corner and was told Steve A-W was dealing with them. Brian was thanked for his report.
- MAINTENANCE MANAGER’S REPORT:
Steve A-W was not in attendance but advised there was nothing to report.
Match Secretary’s Report:
Bob Stockwell Was not in attendance but provided copy emails regarding dates for an ESL match against Purley Bury which they had cancelled at the beginning of the season and now wanted to play in August. The dates offered were not good for Horley as other events were allocated to those dates. The view of the meeting was that Purley Bury would have to provide a team on the dates Horley offered or loose the points. Going on tour was not an acceptable reason not to play from a club membership of PBs size.
PUBLICITY MANAGER’S REPORT:
Alison Griffiths advised that the youth group advertising had been actioned. Regarding the Reigate and Banstead website, Alison will speak to Sarah Keller and Jan Ledwich. Alison asked when the short mat fixture card should go out? Alison also asked if short mat booking could be done on the Bowlr web site? Discussion took place regarding the Signal group app. It seems to have become a ‘free for all’ social app, so rather than scrap it, it was decided to have a separate group only for club bowls to cover finding markers for club competitions.
SOCIAL MANAGER’S REPORT:
Janet Ansell reported the Ausie pairs was well attended and mark Clarke and Mel Hoskins were the winners and got the Ron Shuttleworth cup with bar vouchers. The runners-up were Freda Dickson and Les Lightfoot who received bar vouchers. The spider was won by new member Ted Dearlove. The charity day raised £295.65 which was presented to Cancer Research and a well-deserved raffle winner was won by Dorothy File who won a meal for two with a bottle of wine at the Fox Revived, which they kindly donated.
As a footnote, it was noticeable that a number of newer members had little knowledge of etiquette and the laws of the game and a number of players felt the same.
The next social will be line dancing on 25th August at the clubhouse. It was hoped that on 30th September a 110th birthday party will be organised for the club to celebrate with music and buffet. It was agreed to make it 29th September so the short mat season could start on the Saturday. It is hoped that a bingo evening can be organised for October.
Regarding One Day Events, Janet thanked Alison Griffiths for her IT work and David File for helping with rink allocation. The president’s Day is on 6th August and has 50 names so far. Details are to be finalised but there will be a ploughman’s following the game. There will also be a spider before the game to help raise money for the charity, NSPCC.
Future events will be the Ray Croxton triples on 13 August, The Files Fun Day on 20th August and the Bateman Trophy on 27th and 28th August. Janet was thanked for her report.
BAR MANAGER’S REPORT:
David advised the bar was running smoothly and that was down to Denise and her team. The zero drinks were going down well as demand was growing. The zero Guinness was popular.
- SAFEGUARDING OFFICER’S REPORT:
Liz Cargill advised there was nothing to report.
- PLAYING SECTION REPORTS:
Captain’s Report – Men. Tony Buckee Advised the ESL league was not going well, we won 5 games and lost 6 games with 5 games to go. There was no problem getting teams. There was one game to go in the Border League but sometimes getting a team is hard. In the NDL league, the club continues to be about half way in the league.
For the Ladies, Liz said they had won their game on Saturday against Old Coulsdon, a good win. They were in the top half of the league. Liz was getting good support from the ladies. She said the juniors will play on President’s Day. Liz was thanked for her report.
ANY OTHER BUSINESS:
The refresher ‘defib’ course date was discussed and it was decided that a day time and an evening time will
requested from members to find the best take up. The date will then be passed to Coral to pass on to
St. Johns Ambulance Service who had agreed to run a session for free. It was agreed to inform Coral to
organise the session.
Brian Wilson advised that he had been approached for Horley to host next year’s Middleton Cup games. This would be 5 Saturday mornings between May and June. The games would end around 1pm. Bob Stockwell had advised that ESL games may start next season at 2pm so timing would be an issue. Brian said parking would also bd an issue. Also, we would have to bring in additional catering facilities. Bob Stent suggested wed could ‘sub contract’ the catering to the caffe and offer to advertise for them as a gesture of good will.
After a lot of discussion, it was agreed it was very flattering to the club to be asked but we did not think we could do justice to the event as we did not control the car park or the catering and timing of the event was a real issue for five consecutive weeks. It was agreed we would write and decline the invitation.
A request for umbrellas during the hot weather be provided. Brian Wilson said this has been tried before but when the wind blew, they lifted and flew around the green or over the hedge so no, umbrellas should not be provided. There are shelters where members can get out of the sun, although not on the main road side of the green.
Brian said there had been an issue with an angry man about parking provision as he could not park to walk his dog and blamed the bowls club. When Brian walked round the car park, he saw 6 taxi cars parked up. There was no management of the car park by the Council so it was a free for all. We used the overflow car park. As both Paul and Liz were complained to it was agreed to enforce the rule that two members ‘man’ the barrier and one member must be male rather than two females. It was proposed that a ‘catch up’ meeting with Helen Mann from the Council take place, preferably at the club house, so a car park visit could take place. It will be suggested that signage saying NO Parking be erected and perhaps hatched lines in front of the barrier as cars had parked there making the use of the overflow area impossible to use.
There was a request from a member to update the design of club shirts. In discussion, it was agreed to look into having an up dated design and perhaps a team strip to include shorts as well for league games. As this might be costly, finding a sponsor to fund or partly fund the clothing. A suggestion was that maybe Batemans might want to sponsor clothing (with endorsement printed) rather than another competition. David will speak to R. Bateman. Paul will search on social media.
It was mentioned that handicaps shown on the website were wrong.
Internal competitions – what to wear. It was agreed single colour collard shirts and tailored shorts could be worn.
It was stated that the News page of the club web site was not being used.
Paul advised that the Eastbourne cost would be high so he suggested subsidising the cost so members only pay £30.00 per head. David felt all events should be self-funding. It was agreed that this year the cost would be £30.00 but a review would take place regarding next year. It may be that charging the full cost would mean not hiring a coach for future events.
Tony Buckee will be away from 17th to 27th August to do team selection during that time so it will be down to the Vice Captain and Ladies Captain.
This year, the Finals Day will be managed by the One Day Events Team who are meeting on Tuesday.
There being no other items, the meeting closed at 1:14 pm
Date of next meeting – Monday 11th September at 11:00 am at the clubhouse.
Signed Date