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When the bowls season finishes the clubhouse can be shut down for the winter (October-April) or, as we choose to do, we organise various social events that help the members to keep in touch with each other and keeps the clubhouse in use.
We have regular club nights, bridge events, coffee mornings, quiz nights, darts league, line dancing, theatre club, short mat bowls and indoor bowls matches.
We welcome social members who do not wish to play bowls but who would to like to join us in our social events, or who would just want to come and watch bowls on a fine summers’ evening and quench their thirst.
Club Nights
We have reintroduced ‘club nights’ on Friday evenings and usually these are informal gatherings with members playing darts, pool, cards and table tennis, and on occasions special events are held such as bangers and mash night, curry night and fish n’ chips night. We are also having a skittles evening at a local pub and finishing the winter club night program off with a disco.
Darts League
Most Tuesday evenings sees a band of highly trained athletes travelling far and wide to compete in ‘the bowls darts league’
The league consists of 10 bowling clubs in and around the borough of Croydon, who play each other home and away during the winter season. We also have competitions and an end of season darts presentation dinner and dance.
Its true to say that there is more enthusiasm than skill, but very occasionally someone throws darts just like you see on TV - but it is only very occasional.
Theatre Club
We have a Theatre Club which during the last three years has seen six West End productions. Our first was ‘Mamma Mia’ then ‘We Will Rock You’ followed by ‘The Lion King’ and ‘Guys and Dolls’. This past year we have seen ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat’. The evenings take place at the start and finish of our outdoor season and a coach is hired to transport us to and from the theatre, thus taking all the hassle out of travelling. We have already booked tickets to see ‘The Jersey Boys’ in April 2008.
Line Dancing
We have introduced American line dancing evenings for the more energetic amongst us, and the most energetic person we’ve had participating was an 83 year old! So you can tell they are not too strenuous. We have held three to date and another has been booked for March this year.
Coffee Mornings
Every second Tuesday during the winter we hold a Coffee Morning from 10.30 am until 12.30 pm, where a very friendly informal gathering of members take the opportunity to catch up and chat. Tea, coffee and biscuits are plentiful, with the morning finishing with a well supported raffle. This has become a very popular social event especially for those of our members who find it difficult venturing out on the cold dark nights of winter.
Quiz Nights
During the winter months on the last Friday of every month (except December) a quiz night is held in the clubhouse. Many of our friends from the tennis and croquet attend and we often have over 60 competing. All are invited and we try and set the level of the quiz to satisfy all abilities.There are five different quiz masters, who each entertain us with their own particular brand of quiz, to ensure that their evenings go with ‘a bang’. Our aim is to have teams of four and we charge a nominal fee. The winning team takes all. We also try to arrange some sort of catering for the last quiz of the winter season in March.
Bridge
Chicago Bridge drives are held throughout the winter on a Saturday evening (October/April), the time is 6.30 pm for a 6.45 pm start and we finish about 10.30 pm Tea/Coffee and biscuits are served halfway through the evening. A raffle is held and there are prizes for the teams who are 1st 2nd and 3rd, a Slam Prize and Booby Prize. The cost is £2.50 per player and non-members are always welcome
Short Mat Bowls
Our clubhouse has enough room for two short mats. Every Monday and Wednesday afternoon during the winter season (October to April) a number of enthusiastic short mat bowlers gather to enjoy a very sociable game, with just a hint of competition as there is a trophy at the end of the season for the player with the best aggregate score. These sessions always break for tea and biscuits half way through the game, when everybody enjoys a good old chinwag. We do not play matches against other clubs yet, but an internal league is run on Friday mornings, which is popular with those members who wish to play a slightly more serious game.
Indoor Bowls Matches
These originated when Croydon MOs Bowling Club asked if we would be willing to share some of their indoor fixtures, as they were struggling to put out a full six rinks, In 1995 we played our first full season of indoor matches sharing fixtures with Croydon MOs. At present we now play 20 indoor matches in a season, still sharing six with the Croydon MOs and the rest with players from Purley Bury. Unlike our first few seasons playing indoor matches where we lost most of our matches heavily, we now win our fair share and our defeats are nowhere near as heavy.
We also play in the HALIFAX LEAGUE, this league is organised and played at the Donyngs Indoor Bowling Club. There are 18 outdoor clubs involved; you play either Saturday or Sunday in the 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm session which consist of one rink per club. In 2005 we were runners up and won the league in 2006. We try and give as many members the opportunity to play regardless of experience; these games are becoming ever more popular.
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