We are still operating within Bowls England guidelines to keep Covid-secure, but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer. By 21 June we could be nearly normal – fingers crossed!

Social Bowling:

We started our season on 24th April 2021 with ‘Social Bowling’ where rinks can be booked by members for 2 hour sessions. Regretfully the Pavilion remains closed and there is not much chance of general socialising for the moment under our Covid restrictions, but we live in hope! Details of the Social Bowling Plan are in the Letter to Members dated 18th April. We expect the rules to be updated as Bowls England guidance is varied in line with the change in Government regulations, expected on 15th May and 21st June. For members convenience, a contact list of current membership is available in the Geoffrey Millman Cabin and in the members area of this website.

Organised Bowling:

We have got a full schedule of events coming up as restrictions ease, with club tournament competitions and matches with other clubs, and hopefully some really social bowling, with an open pavilion & changing rooms and minimal restrictions.

Fixtures Card: Match Secretary Colin Williams has produced a 2021 Fixtures Card which contains provisional dates for all normal Club activities. As the possibility of alterations is quite high under current circumstances, it is not intended to print the card this year, but the current edition is available here.

Matches and Leagues: As is normal practice, team sheets for all matches will be posted on noticeboards (well ahead of the match dates) in the GM Cabin lobby for you to sign up. The May matches are already posted, as is the Bidgood League squad sheet, so please visit and sign – in a socially distant manner of course!

Club tournaments: Competitions Secretary Lisa Levy is working hard to arrange all the normal Club tournaments, as scheduled in the Fixtures Card, within the guidance current at each date. The sign- up sheet for the Godfrey Memorial tournament (Bank Holiday Monday 31st May)  is now posted in GM Cabin Lobby awaiting your immediate attention – entries are limited to 24 under current guidance. Sheets for the other tournaments will be posted (well ahead of the scheduled date) in the GM Cabin Lobby.

Club knockout competitions Following the review of Bowls England guidance due on 17th May and dependent on the number of members who have signed up for Social Bowling,  it is intended to email the list of Club knockout competitions (which normally appears on the membership renewal form)  to all members for them to advise which ones they wish to enter, and to pay the entrance fee (£1 a go!). So please, members should register on the FastCourts system, even if you are not intending to do Social Bowling. Wait for the knockout competitions list to appear as it may not be possible to accommodate all the normal competitions in the remainder of the season.

 Finally, Just a reminder about a couple of things:

    NHS Contact tracing -  On entering the site you need to, if you have the NHS app use the NHS QR code (by gate, or in GM Cabin lobby) or, if you haven’t got the app, sign in the register in the GM Cabin lobby.

•    The GM cabin is only open for use of toilets and to view/sign up to matches &  competitions. The changing rooms are closed. From a Covid point of view, the GM Cabin lobby is not a good place to hang around in, so please keep numbers down (one is a good number!) and  leave as soon as you’ve done what you need to do.

At least we’ve managed to start the season in April this year – which is more than we did in 2020!