May I, on behalf of the Management team thank all those kind contributors who left in lots of new books for our readers. Don’t forget, you are helping Cancer Research too.

The IWIBA Selectors would like to thank Ronnie McKitterick, Billy McConkey and all the BIBC men who played in the two practice matches against the Ladies Irish International Team. Their contribution was greatly appreciated, says Molly Scott.

They say lightning does not strike twice in the same place. Not so – at least for the rink of Mary Kavanagh, Valerie Peden, Gladys Taylor, and Lily Lusty, who not

only got a hot shot count on 12th February, but repeated again on 19th February and then got another one on 4th March! Well done ladies. Yet another hot shot rink consisted of Philip Woodside, Karen Woodside, Sammy Moore and Christine Young.

The Ladies Closing Tournament and AGM is on Monday 31st March at 10.00am. More details on the notice boards.

A number of people, who will remain anonymous, were critical of my use of semi-colons in last month’s Newsletter. I’m just glad they can read it!  However, for their elucidation and enlightenment, and possibly amusement, I attach the following in the interests of future clarity:

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

In the first year, ‘s’ will replace the soft ‘c’. This will make the sivil servants jump with joy. In the second year, the hard ‘c’ will be dropped in favour of ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will encourage the removal of double letters which have always been a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent ‘e’ in the language is disgrasful and it should go away. By the fourz yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’, and ‘w’ with ‘v’. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be droped from vords containing ‘ou’ and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evriun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united Urop vil finali kum tru. Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze first plas.

Club Championships

Men

The Premier Singles Cup was won by Mark McPeak; the Junior Singles event by Patrick McCafferty; the Pairs Trophy was won by Jim McGettrick and Alan Montgomery; the Two Bowls Cup went to Paul McEwan and Peter Thompson; the Triples was won by Matt Martin, Barry Quinn, and Simon Martin; the Fours Cup was won by Nigel Gibson, Ryan Craig, John Boyd, and Clifford Craig.

Men’s trophies presented by Club Chairman, Ian Bamford

Premier Singles winner

Mark McPeak

Junior Singles winner

Patrick McCafferty

Pairs winners

Jim McGettrick & Alan Montgomery

Triples winners

Simon Martin, Matt Martin & Barry Quinn

Fours winners

Clifford Craig, John Boyd, Nigel Gibson & Ryan Craig

Ladies

The Premier Singles Cup was won by Sandra Bailie; the Pairs Trophy was won by Moya McGuile and Sandra Bailie, who also went on to win the Irish Pairs – well done! The Triples title went to Molly Scott, Moya McGuile and Pat Smyth; the Fours Title was won by Molly Scott, Moya McGuile, Sandra Bailie and Pat Smyth; the Vera McCourt Pairs Title was won by Karen Woodside and Sandra Bailie. Funny the way some names just keep cropping up there.

Ladies trophies presented by Ladies President, Betty Craig

Premier Singles winner

Sandra Bailie

Pairs Trophy winners

Moya McGuile & Sandra Bailie

Triples winners

Molly Scott, Moya McGuile & Sandra Bailie

Fours winners

Molly Scott, Moya McGuile, Sandra Bailie & Pat Smyth

Congratulations to all finalists as well as winners. Well done also, to our Competitions Secretaries Bobby Johnston and Babs Armstrong – the Finals Day went off like clockwork.

End of Season Charity Tournament

This popular event will be on Saturday 29th March, starting at 7pm. Proceeds in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Research. PLEASE support this worthwhile event.

The proposed Summer Mixed Pairs League for Friday nights will start on April 11th at 7.15pm. Entry forms are available from Reception.

We are also proposing next season to have Pairs and Triples Leagues. The Four Bowl Pairs on Fridays at 11.30 am and the Triples League on Thursdays at 11.30am.  It will be interesting to see if these take off. Look for the entry forms in the summer forms.

This will be the last Club Newsletter before the summer. There will be a summer edition posted out along with the usual forms. I would take this opportunity to thank all our members for their support to the Club for the past year, particularly those valuable members who bowl 4, 5 or 6 times a week.  All in all, I believe the Club has turned the corner; things are beginning to buzz around the greens again, and the social scene is definitely better. In this respect I would like to thank Richard Wilkinson and congratulate him in his first year as the new manager.

So, as many of you head out to the grassy lawns of sunny Ulster, may I wish you all happy bowling, and I look forward to you renewing your membership next autumn.

PS: if every single member would just introduce one new member……. think about it over the summer.

Yours in sport,

Ken Armstrong

Editor