This is the second Newsletter to keep members informed as to what is going on and what our plans are for the future. If you have any suggestions or questions then please get in touch with a committee member.

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

The time and date for our AGM is 12:30 pm, Tuesday 11th March 2025. We have a much larger membership this year and therefore we will email you to see if you will be coming. The venue is to be confirmed once we know approximately how many members will be in attendance.

New Year Plans

Coming Shortly: Coaching for improvers, a third coach, bowl for health courses, social bowling afternoons, potential second league team.

The club has produced a draft development plan which will be added to in the coming months.

At the end of March, we will offer a refresher training day for existing members. This will cover: Health & Safety, warm up and cool down examples, basic bowling techniques, and follow up with a quiz and social game.

We are proposing to hold regular coaching/practice sessions throughout the season to increase members competence and confidence in playing bowls. The first sessions will take place, weather permitting, from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm, Saturday 1st March. This is an opportunity to improve your game, should you wish to.

In April and May, we will once again run a number of Bowl for Health courses to attract new members. If you know of anybody who will benefit from these sessions then please encourage them to participate. The sessions will also be advertised externally and we are planning on delivering new sessions from April.

From April, we will offer a number of social bowling afternoons to enable members to meet and play with other members, with the social side being as important as the game!

Win £25,000 on the Halton Lottery

Play the lottery, support Hough Green Park Bowls Club and other good causes in Halton. Every time you play, our club receives a donation from the lottery and all profits go to good causes in Halton.

Encourage as many others as possible to join, the more that play, the more funds we receive!

To Register:

• Log on to www.haltoncommunitylottery.co.uk
• Fill in your details
• Select Hough Green Pensioners Club as your supported good cause

Maintenance

Every Monday and most Wednesdays during the summer season, we usually cut the grass and perform minor maintenance tasks. Everyone is welcome to come down and help in any way the feel they are capable of. Everything from mowing the lawn, trimming the edges, clipping the hedges and shrubs, sweeping the paths, cleaning in the clubhouse, making teas and coffee, are all essential tasks.

During the winter season, we still undertake maintenance every Monday, 09:30 am - 12:00 pm, followed by a social get together or game of bowls. Please feel free to join us if you cann, it’s a very social event!

As well as for improving our playing surface, we undertake this maintenance in order to keep the cost of our subscriptions down. To employ a contractor to do what our volunteers do is likely to cost between £6,000 - £10,000. This would at least quadruple our membership fees.

Winter Bowling

Please don’t use the green when: it’s frosty, frozen, or saturated with water

One of the advantages of being a member of our club is having the opportunity to maintain your skills over the winter. As we keep the green available to use, we do have a rule to not use it if it is waterlogged or frozen.

Please follow this rule, as we would like to maintain and continue to improve the standard of the running surface and protect the grass growth. Playing in the above conditions will damage the grass. When the weather is poor, please stay warm and dry in the clubhouse!

For safety reason, please remember during normal winter usage, to not play within 1.5 meters of the edge of the green as it will be slippery.

And finally…

Many thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions or questions then please get in touch with a committee member.

Please try to keep our clubroom clean, if the bin is full please empty it (on the left hand side of the allotment area as you go through the gate, spare bin bags are in the toilet area), if there is material on the floor, please use the vacuum cleaner.

Committee members are: Dave Duckett, Peter Gray, Bernie Carr, Bernie Knowles, Ade McLoughlin, Andy Smith, Helen Smith, Ged Jolliffe, Mo Clay, Colin Vallender and Dave Moss.