BBQ & BOWLS

AUGUST 23, 2009           BBQ AND BOWLS

This year our annual BBQ and Bowls was held at a new venue, The Cranham Court Nursing Home in St. Mary's Lane.Quite appropriate for some of us you might think but you would be wrong because the splendid examples of Rotary manhood and womanhood who attended this great sporting event were all in fine fettle.We were blessed with an absolutely beautiful day and the assorted gazebos and umbrellas were a necessity in the baking sun.

Normans team ( Ray Hare, George Larkey, John Crowder, Gerry Harrington, Brian Taffs and the delightful Philippa Crowder) assembled on the field in the beautiful grounds of the home and very soon had the equipment assembled  and the food on the go. To begin with we were a little hampered by the electricity supply which kept blowing a fuse, but the problem was soon sorted out by Shiraz's men and Norman was able to get his spuds going. Ray, John and Gerry did the bulk of the cooking and probably ended up a lot thinner as a result of the heat from the fires. George and Philippa did the serving and in next to no time much of the cooked food and the wonderful salads, prepared by Daphne and Philippa, had disappeared.

Once lunch was over Gerry put away his chef's outfit and became the Sports Master. He soon had us all organized and the assembled crowd were thrilled at the skill of the bowlers, young and old. True, there was an element of luck needed on the not always true bowling surface (once or twice the bowls disappeared down one of the many holes in the field) but this did not affect the enthusiasm of the participants. The final was keenly contested by Hannelore  Sibley and her playing partner Robert Dundas and our SVP John Crowder and his partner young Ellis O'Reilly. Hannelore and Robert were the eventual winners and they were presented with ......nothing (we could not find the trophy from last year) by our President Brian Taffs who thanked everybody for attending.

Special thanks were given to Shiraz and Indu for allowing us to use their grounds and also to Norman and the team for their hard work. All in all a good time was had by all despite the numbers being a little down on last year.

JVP George Larkey