2011 St Patricks Day Report

The members attending our annual St Patricks celebrations, most in fancy enthusiastic Irish dress, was once again tremendous. It was nice to see Tony Schorah past vice-captain of ALBC, on his regular St Patrick’s Day visit.

This year the format was changed to drawn triples and pairs to accommodate all members wishing to play. To ensure we were ready for the buffet and music by Brendan O’Dee organised by the Shirley Jackson, the competition was played in two parts, drawing the teams each time. Jim Pike and Ann Tuplin then added shots gained with each participant to give the winning order. The day started with a Spider which John Pheonix won.The games were played in an enthusiastic way with everyone having fun.

This year was very different to past years as most of you are aware. Ray and Siobhan Herrity, our little leprechauns, were not able to do their stirring work in organising due to his ongoing cancer. They were sadly missed and to ensure that they were still in our thoughts, during the interval, yours truly asked all those attending to raise their glasses to them and pray for Ray’s successful recovery.  Although they were not with us, thanks go to Siobhan and Ray who had sent money to cover prizes for the Spider and competition winners, together with little knickknacks for those ‘best dressed’.  Our Irish couple John and Eileen Pheonix kindly judged the best dressed. Thanks go to them for standing in for Ray and Siobhan.

To ensure that everyone could enjoy there after game refreshments and buffet, the presentations and photographs took place early by Jim Pike, John and Eileen Pheonix and yours truly. The winner of the ‘best dress’ was Sue Mannall followed by Maureen Atkins and Pat Deacon. Others recognised were Norman Atkins, Brian Franklin and John Mannall.Winner of the competition was Tony Laville, second Sue Mannall and third Carol Roberts. There were lots of prizes given, however, I am not quite sure who the recipricants were. As it was an Irish occasion  Jim reversed the competition winning order and gave the bottom four, Carol Laight, Jane Franklin, Brian Franklin and Eileen Donley prizes. At the end of the day, who cares, everyone enjoyed themselves.

All monies raised during these celebrations go to Ray and Siobhans selected charity, Asprodalba, a charity in Spain, which does a lot for handicapped children of all nations.  Our ‘Spider’ winner, John Pheonix was relieved willingly of his bottle of ‘Irish whisky’ for members to compete by tossing Euros along the deck towards the bottle, the nearest resting euro to the bottle, the winner. Colin Wright won and then auctioned the bottle and won again, costing him 20 euro. A lovely gesture from him and Pat, (Johnny Vees sister) Pat was bidding gainst him and matched with a contribution of 20 euro towards the end amount of 155 euros. All proceeds going to Asprodalba. Thanks once again to Graham Patrick for running this event and wife  Cath for geeing everyone up to play.

Jim Pike thanked everyone for making the day successful, the catering and restaurant staff for the service given. A super day had by all. This report and photographs of the occasion will be found on our web site, www.bowlingalmeria.com

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Vic Parsons

ALBC Press Officer & Vice Chairman