Aberdeen bowling Club- Update May 2023

Dear Member

I hope you are all well and despite the wet weather I hope that you have managed to get along to the club to enjoy a game of bowls. It is hard to believe we are now half way through the month of May. It has been lovely to see some of our members enjoying the few sunny days and managing to get up to the green for a few ends between showers. Although the weather has not been favourable so far we are hoping that some of you will manage to come along to the Thursday afternoon hats as the season progresses.

We hope that our new members have settled in, are making new friends and are enjoying their bowling.

We have been busy with Bowls Scotland competitions with many of our members participating in a variety of fixtures. The club has enjoyed much success in the early rounds with everyone enjoying their games. Congratulations to those who have made it through the first rounds and we look forward to hearing how they all progress.

We enjoyed the first two Saturday afternoon friendlies but would welcome more names for the next games so we do not have to cancel. Please come along and add your names to the lists in the clubhouse. The fixture sheets are posted on the notice boards every week.

The club competitions – singles, pairs and club pairs are now on the notice board with plenty time to arrange matches for each round. If you have entered competitions this season please go to the club and check your fixtures.

We have ladies teams in for the Scot/Simpson (Monday) and the ALDBA (Tuesday) leagues this season and would again encourage ladies to put their names down for these leagues as we often struggle to get teams together. The gents have games on a Monday and a Wednesday and Norman would really appreciate some more of our gentlemen members to sign up for these games.

We are still happy to welcome new members to ensure the future of our club so please feel free to bring along a friend or recommend the club to friends, relatives or anyone who is looking to take up a new sport.
We have a variety of bowls available at the club for anyone who wishes to have a go.

Our website is up and running so please log in and have a look if you have not already done so (www.aberdeenbowlingclub.com). We try our best to update forthcoming events on the website and keep members updated of our calendar of events for 2023.

We continue to work hard to keep our clubhouse and grounds looking smart. The window frames have been painted and the outside of the clubhouse has a new coat of paint. Thanks to George Lawrence and Grant Cable for the work they have put in. The pump for our watering system cracked recently and we are very grateful to Douglas Farmer who has been working with some friendly engineers to solve the problem and save us from having to replace the pump, which would be a costly enterprise. Thanks also to Gordon Smith our Property Convenor who is always on hand to oversee maintenance work.

We still have many members who have yet to collect their club handbooks and coffee morning tickets from the club. Our coffee morning is on Saturday 1 July. We are hoping to have a good turn out so please do your best to sell your allocated tickets and return the money to our treasurer Val Lawrence. We are hoping to have a bottle stall, a chocolate tombola and a raffle at the coffee morning and would be most grateful for donations. Please feel free to drop off donations at any time prior to the coffee morning. (Please can you check sell by dates on donations). We will need lots of helpers for the coffee morning. If you feel you can man a stall or fill in raffle tickets please sign up at the club so we can organise stalls etc.



We are delighted that so many of you have signed up for our 50/50 club. There is still plenty of time to sign up before our first draw on Sunday 28 May. We invite you all to an afternoon of fun bowling activities, followed by refreshments and the very first 50/50 Grand Draw! We are hoping that the weather will have improved by then.
Please let me know if you wish to attend.

Karen Cable and Susan Martin have been working on their Umpire Training over the past few months and are hoping to gain their Umpire qualifications in the near future. We wish them the best of luck with their final assessments.

We would like to ask members past and present who have spare keys to the club that they no longer use to please return them to the club. We have new members who are keen to bowl and as the cost of cutting keys has greatly escalated we would very much appreciate the return of any spare keys that can be distributed to our new members.

We are hoping that some of you will be able to donate a hanging basket to enhance the look of our clubhouse and grounds. This would be appreciated towards the middle of June as the weather hopefully improves. We would also ask if anyone has spare bird feeders that they can donate as we would like to encourage birds to the grounds to help with the worm problem on the green!

Unfortunately the relentless rain has slightly hindered the progress of our green but it is now in the hands of our new green keepers ‘idverde’. The team has been working hard to improve our green although it has been quite a battle against the wet weather. They are confident that the green will continue to improve in the coming weeks once we get some warmer weather and some sunshine to dry it out.

We are looking forward to our friendly match against the Churches League this Saturday 20 May. We have managed to get four rinks so please make sure that you tick your name to confirm that you can play.

We wish all of the players in this weeks Bowls Scotland fixtures the very best of luck and we look forward to seeing you up at the green in the next few weeks.


Kind regards

President Karen
and the Committee of Aberdeen Bowling Club