2016 – The New Carpet

Work started with the delivery of the carpet (aided by Dave Elliott). It came from the Netherlands a few days ago. The carpet fitters then came in and stripped the old carpet. The underlay was inspected and found to be in very good order. The last picture shows the underlay awaiting fitting of the new carpet.
More pics follow the progress of the work.

Day 2 has pics of the removal of the old and the start of the new carpet going down.

Days 3 & 4 shows how much has been done and we are almost ready to play again.

P.A.R.I.B.C. DO THE “SHAKE AND VAC” ON THE NEW CARPET!

From The Thin Man

Many thanks to the support of the PARIBC members for their superb turnout on Sat 30^th July 2016, for the first match on the new carpet. The new carpet has come from Holland, which left me a little confused, as I have heard of a Dutch cap, but never a Dutch carpet! So perhaps this is one that protects against carpet burns as well, or have I got it wrong again?! I think the comments of praise, out weighed the moans, (just about, ho, ho!), as the players got to grips with the run of the new carpet, but perhaps the funniest and most odd comment overheard was, (and said in all seriousness), “I preferred the old carpet, as the colour of the new one is not as green is it?”!

An afternoon of mixed triples ensued, where the ladies present, I say again, yes, the ladies, (can you believe it?), actually got to pick their own teams on the day. There was consternation, as the men thought the ladies role was to hoover and clean the carpet, not be allowed to select the teams! Blimey, how times have changed! But with the chance to pick any of the men present for their teams, what did the ladies all do for their first pick? Only go and pick their old men for their teams! Winners of both sessions, (8 ends each) and thus overall winners, were the triple of Margaret Head, Maureen Osborne and Eric Clive, with Eric only there trying to keep order and try, (but fail!), to get a word in now and again! There were prizes for them, the runners up and third place, the normal raffle prizes, as well as the usual spider prizes, which ensured that the mature patrons of PARIBC were being supplied with at least one of their 5 a day! Who says we are not a healthy club? It must be noted that the tin of haggis was not won this time, so that rolls over to the next event!

Thanks go to Dave Hood for standing down at the last minute, (apparently he did have a chicken casserole cooking in the oven at home), so he didn’t really mind and to Alan Head who turned up but did not get a game yet did manage to finish the jigsaw puzzle. Also huge thanks to 4 ladies, (and I use that word “ladies” very loosely!), Margaret Head, Maureen Osborne, Pat Wells and Deidre Williams, who agreed to play together in the same teams, to help me out. Thanks also to those who generously contributed, (and continue to contribute), to the on going loose small coppers / small silver collection, which will be running for a fair while yet. Final thanks go to all those who helped on the day. The day raised over £250 for the club’s coffers, so well done to all for that and by my reckoning, this now means that we only have to raise another £47,323 and 63 pence and the carpet will be paid for! Although the insurance claim being brought against the club by Lew Hart, after his broken bench incident, may mean we might have to take out an even bigger bank loan as well! Pictures of the new carpet being laid during the week are shown above and of the first game can be seen below.

Finally, having said all of the above, the organisation of the afternoon was appalling and the constant shouting of poor instructions, led to much confusion and deafness! The PARIBC Board of Directors need to look closely about allowing this person anywhere near organising any more events! Equally he and he alone, (so must take all the blame), failed miserably to pick any winning lottery numbers for the group syndicate, apart from getting one lucky dip and these new “losing numbers”, of this ticket for the Lotto this Wed, (03/08/16), are as follows:- 12, 21, 30, 38, 40, 44 / RUBY 24298757.

Kind regards, from your correspondent,

None other than a bowler from Havering IBC, who did not have a game this weekend, but did have fishcakes for tea!