2013 December Monthly Report

This is the last Monthly Report for 2013 and as usual Joan and I are   now back in UK after a fantastic Christmas spent in Benidorm with all our friends   from   Almeria Bowling Club.  Everything going well with various medical appointments completed and no major problems, but now looking forward to returning to Spain later this month.

The CALB Mixed Fours Knockout   entries were a little down compared with last year, however it was still well supported with twenty teams taking part. This began on Friday 5^th December and went through to the Semi’s and Final on Sunday  8th December which was played at Almeria Bowling Club.

Winners were from Indalo with the team lead by Barbara Ruscoe, Austin Crilly, John Henworth and Barbara Davies’ Runners up were from Almeria with Graham Patrick, John Fitzgerald, Christine Fitzgerald and Peter Steenstrup. The standard of the competition during the knockout stages was extremely good with many high profile players knocked out in the early stages

As you know from November Report the 11 a Side Competition came to a stage where the Final was decided. This will be between our Almeria team led by Colin Wright and an Indalo, which will be played on January 9th at our club at 1400.

Our Christmas Lunch and Presentation took place on the 12^th December. As last year this  would be after Thursday Roll up, hopefully to encourage more members to attend.  This was successful then and good this year, with numbers attending and a great buffet.However, where are those days gone when we had a full evening attendance dressed   appropriately? Maybe one day this will be repeated. As usual lots of photographs were taken, thanks to our resident ‘David Bailey’ Roy Tonkin. A link from our website  www.bowlingalmeria.com  was sent individually to all of our members who are computerized. Thanks must go to Sandra Brown   for managing the party and raffle. Other thanks to John Lodge  and  Miraflores staff, for excellent service with the buffet and entertainment.

The last club competition this year was the Palace Cup handicap singles. The winner was John Fitzgerald playing off scratch, who was successful over Jim Pike with a handicap of two. The Final was played on Sunday afternoon 15^th December and it was great to see so many spectators looking on and supporting both players.

New Year Special Day -John Fitzgerald requested a special mention for Jim Pike, whose experience running this, showed when an excellent day was had by all. The competition devised was won by Stuart Beetham  beating his wife, Janice, oh.oh !!!!!

My annual moan and disappointment having to mention it again, is about email response and manners. If someone was talking to you, would you ignore them?  No, you wouldn’t. So what is so difficult if someone who takes the trouble to email you directly   or copy you , to just reply with a comment or a simple thanks!!! Sometimes it is also frustrating that because of no response, one isn’t sure whether information has been received or not and then has to send the email message again. Please note in all probability the   information sent to you has taken a lot of effort to develop.         For those members that  address to this, please accept my apologies.

Happy New Year

Vic Parsons – Vice Chairman/Press Secretary