Thanks first of all to Gladys Taylor and the Ladies Committee for organising yet another successful Macmillan Coffee Morning – over £730 was raised. The traybakes were wonderful. Thanks also to Alberta and the Restaurant for supplying the tea, coffee, sugar and milk. (see below).

Richard Wilkinson also wants to thank all those who sponsored him in the Great North Run – Richard raised over £545 – well done!

Congratulations to the Irish Senior Men who travelled to North Wales and retained the British Isles Championship – Stanley Hegan, Seamus Elliman and Bobby Johnston were in the team (see below).

Congratulations to the BIBC Ladies team who have just beaten PTIBC on Sat 10th October.

Apologies to John McCullough from me as I referred to Wally Taylor and Nigel Gibson winning the Summer Pairs League – John was of course Wally’s partner.

Congratulations to Nigel Gibson who has qualified for the PBA Championships in England; Nigel had a super weekend at the Baker Stadium.

The PBA Irish qualifiers were held recently, and went very well from our point of view. Congratulations to David Corkill for qualifying for the National Finals. Hopefully the PBA will return in future years.  In November we hold the Inter-Association matches – a trophy which we hold of course, so the men are going for 3 in a row.

Social scene: we attach the list of forthcoming dates for your diary/wallet/handbag. The highlight this month will be the Halloween Fancy Dress Party – so get designing now!

Coaching Corner : one of the most important aspects of our game is concentration. How many times have we used the lack of it for a bad bowl??  Can you work on or improve your concentration? The answer is yes.   The first thing to do is set yourself a routine – on the mat; prepare yourself, or as we say, address the mat in exactly the same way every time.  The next thing is to ‘zone out’ all extraneous matters, like chat or shouting on the rinks nearby; you have, of course, the right to ask for any talk, or movement, on your own rink – both behind you and in front of you, to cease.  You are in possession of the rink until your bowl stops – you must then vacate the mat (or else be at the head!).  Next you must learn to ‘zone in.’   By this I mean the art of concentration and self-talk; encourage yourself eg. by saying you did this exact shot 2 ends ago. Bowls was always seen as a quiet gentlemanly sport; but not nowadays – at least not at high Club or International level. High fives, clapping, shouting bowls into the head appears to be the norm – so noise is the order of the day. You just have to learn to keep it all out.

Umpiring Notes: this month we are looking at the Result of End Rule 44, which covers the 30 second rule. (i) A shot or shots shall be adjudged to be the bowl or bowls nearer to the jack than any other bowl played by the opposing player or players.   (ii) When the last bowl has come to rest, if either team desires, 30 seconds shall elapse before the measuring process is started.   (iii) At any time during the measuring process, any bowl which is in danger of falling may be secured in its position by either opponent.  If the bowls are not secured and fall prior to or during measurement, the bowls shall remain in the new position and the shot determination continued.  All shots previously agreed shall count.
There is more to this rule, but the 30 second aspect is the one we want to highlight, so I hope that is now clear.

Editor