What Dru did in Portsmouth….

Blimey, it was frosty at 7am on Sunday 14^th December when I set out from Teignmouth to go to Park Community Centre in Havant, Hampshire. My 3 hour trip was made in order to support Portsdown Short Mat Bowls Club in helping to raise money for Motor Neurone Disease. I was to present a holiday voucher as a prize, a two night mid week stay at TLH Leisure Resort.

Portsdown SMBC were running a tournament called Charity 5′s in which a triple and a pair from clubs entering competed for prize money. The above charity was chosen as the Headmaster of this Centre suffers this dreadful malady. However, I am always amazed by the dedication and tenacity of people that I meet in the bowling world, and so, here is their story:

A young woman, Sue Parrish, spearheads the Park Community Centre. She works very hard to arrange activities and care for children and young persons after school hours. Her endeavours have not gone unnoticed as on 20^th November this year they attended a prestigious award ceremony in London where the Centre received the top National Extended School Award 2008. This award is presented for the amount and quality of after school care in the community.

Hang on we are getting there. You may ask what has this got to do with bowling, well, amongst the activities that Park Community Centre arranges is Short Mat Bowling. This section takes up to 17 youngsters every Wednesday afternoon and teaches them to play bowls. Richard Allen the treasurer and Martyn Dubb, President of Portsdown SMBC, coach these youngsters and they are having great success with this. 8 of the past groups have joined the club and 2 of their protégés now play for the England Under 21 team.

Now that’s 2 success stories that needed to be told. Well done you guys, you are the way forward, and clubs should take a good close look at you, you must be doing something right. But the story doesn’t end there. All the equipment,  25 mats, sets of bowls etc. have all been bought by Portsdown SMBC. They were assisted initially by a grant from the Sports Council, but most of the equipment they have purchased themselves via the Internet.

Anyway, I digress. 26 teams entered the competition which was played in a round robin format up to ¼ final stage when from there it was a straight knockout to the winners.

I had the pleasure of watching some really good bowling and amongst the teams was one that spanned 3 generations, grandfather, father and son. Bowls does hold generations close, its one of the few games where this opportunity arises.

There was a stall with the most amazing homemade cakes for sale and to eat and there was an auction for two fabulous Christmas cakes. I bid seveeeerrrrn pounds but did not win the cake – I think there was a bit of jiggery pokery going on with the Umpire of the Day, no it wasn’t John Sergeant. So all in all it was a great day. Very enjoyable.

And so, the Results:
Lavant of West Sussex won the competition and put 50% of their winnings back into the charity.
Runners up were Tarring of Worthing, who put all their winnings back into the charity.
3^rd were Barton Hall  and  4^th were Itchen from Southampton.

I am delighted to report that the centre raised in excess of £900 on Sunday (last year they raised £775), brilliant, and, it is rumoured that TLH will be entering their own team in 2009 – I wonder if Dru Close will live up to her name. Well that’s another story.

Thats all folks, signing off,

Dru  (covered in tinsel and slightly flushed)