Newslink May 2007

This newsletter was produced (free of charge by Lware Limited for Mudeford Men's Club, Christchurch. Formatting and images are not included. NEWSLINK The Newsletter of the Mudeford Mens’ Club May 2007 Editorial rant Apathy – I could write pages on the subject if only I could be bothered. But MMC members take their apathy more seriously than most and raise it almost to an art form. We gave you a forum, here in Newslink, to ask any searching questions you might have for the Committee. Result - nothing. We encouraged you to write in with you views on any subject. We even offered you free drinks for doing so. Result - nothing. We asked all the sports teams to let us know how they are getting on so we can inform you, the membership who fund their teams. Result – input from Football and Golf and nobody else. And, perhaps most disturbingly, we have just had the annual Committee elections. Out of a membership of around 1,500, a total of 126 people managed to put an X in the box. Truly pathetic. We are lucky, we have a well run club. All the Officers were returned for another term without a challenge and all members of the Committee standing for re-election were successful with Norman Grindley elected for a first term.. But what if things were different? What if the Club was being badly run? Would the membership still sit back with an “I can’t be bothered” attitude and watch the Club spiral into insolvency, as some others have? Let’s hope we never find out. MMC wins prestigious award! Mudeford Men's Club was awarded first place in the 'Organisation of the Year Category' of the third annual Good Citizen Awards presented by Christchurch Borough Council on Friday 30th March at a dinner held in the Avonmouth Hotel. The Mayor of Christchurch, Cllr David Fox, said: "There are somany individuals and organisations in Christchurch who are worthy of our praise and it is unfortunate that we can't invite them all here tonight. However, I am delighted to welcome the finalists to thank them for their personal efforts which help to make Christchurch such a community-minded place."Club Secretary John Oliver and Committee member Ian Davis receive the Good Citizens Award from Ms Carolyn Collins, General Manager, Avonmouth Hotel, who sponsored this award.A trophy, award certificate, and a cheque were presented to Club Secretary John Oliver and Management Committee member Ian Davis. These items will go on permanent display at the Club as a tribute to all the members who have contributed to this ongoing effort. John Oliver stated:“This award should be shared by the whole membership and our super staff for the way the Club is run and operates. A wonderful start to 2007 for us!” The smoking ban July 1st will be a milestone for the Club as the new smoking regulations come into effect. Attendees to the Pussyfoot dinner (30th June) need not panic however as they will not be ordered to stub out their cigars on the stroke of midnight as the law does not come into effect until 6am. Evidence from Ireland and other locations that have initiated such schemes suggests that our revenue is likely to be severely affected. Estimates are that venues that do not provide smoking facilities are likely to suffer a 25-30% reduction in turnover. With this in mind, the Committee has been looking into this issue for many months and has undertaken detailed, proactive planning to ensure that the Club suffers as little as possible. Naturally, after so many months of hard work, the plans are very detailed, but I will attempt to explain, in layman’s terms, exactly what the Committee has decided. “Wait and see what happens.” Inspired! Well, here’s a wild guess. Less money will be taken over the bar. The non-smokers will then say that smokers are not using the Club and therefore do not require any special facilities. The smokers will argue that they aren’t using the Club because there are no special facilities. Back to square one. Let us hope that once members are lost, they can be tempted back, as and when we provide some facilities. The Committee has asked that the members make their views known. Please contact a member of the Committee directly or, send your comments to Newslink and they will be forwarded. Club Entertainment 19th May saw another well attended Jam Night. Special thanks to all the guest performers - Michelle, Clive, Dave and Peter Foster who ‘borrowed’ members of State Of Undress to give an acoustic performance at half time. Saturday night entertainment MAY BH 26 Bluebird Disco JUNE 2 Blitz Disco 9 Ocean Drive 16 Phil Joseph - New Act 23 The Word 30 Pussyfoot Dinner (Johnny Clark) JULY 7 Limited Edition 14 Cookie Roadshow 21 Filmed Race Night 28 Social Evening AUGUST 4 Envy 11 Disco TBA 18 Blowing Free Band – New Band BH 25 Alpine Roadshow Keep an eye out for some more new acts in the coming weeks. Phil Joseph is a solo singer and can be seen on 16th June. Blowing Free are a new band, catch them in August. Sports news Crib No input received Ladies darts No input received Mens darts No input received Snooker No input received Cricket The season has just started. Look out for full coverage in the next issue. Frank Selleck Trophy – April 2007 The annual snooker challenge against Southbourne has been running almost 30 years. Whilst both teams want to take the trophy home, the games are always played in great spirit. Alas, some might suspect that a few too many spirits had been consumed as, on the night of the first leg, the mighty MMC team travelled to Southbourne. This would have been fine, were it not for the slight hindrance of the Southbourne team also travelling to Mudeford! Naturally, we were right and the Southbourners had to retreat home with their tails between their legs, stopping off at Sainsbury’s to purchase the food for the event! The knock-on effect was that no extension had been arranged for the evening and the match had to be reduced in length. Clearly this change to the rules affected Mudeford’s highly tuned athletes who subsequently went on to come second, by the narrowest of margins (well, okay, actually it was 7 – 2). The return match at Mudeford did at least see both teams agreeing to play at the same venue but, after the shenanigans of the first match, our brave warriors were just too far behind and so, for one year only, we are allowing Southbourne to borrow the trophy! Newly appointed captain Rob Boulton accepted full responsibility for the defeat and offered his head for the block. However, kind hearted President Laurie Wilkinson (I have to say something nice after implying he was drunk in the last issue!) declined to accept it. As a cricket fan, Laurie’s desire to see heads roll had been satisfied that day by the departure of Duncan Fletcher from the England cricket team. GolfThe MMC Golf Society had it’s inaugural meeting at Moors Valley on 27th April. The Stableford Competition was won by Peter Chatfield, with 39 points off a 20 handicap. Runner up was our own Entertainments Officer, Mark Roper with a very creditable 37 points off a handicap of 22. Steward, Gordon Wallace, despite severe lack of golf through the winter, came through in excellent form winning both the longest drive and the nearest the pin competitions. An excellent afternoon was rounded off with a results presentation and very tasty sandwiches at the Club in the evening. The Len Taylor Trophy Golf Day on Friday 18th May at Highcliffe Golf Club was another success for the Club. The best score from a MMC member was Paul Sadler. Runner up was Andrew Millard and Pat Bond was third. The Celebrations after the game were extensive, with all the players sitting down to a superb dinner and drinks to remember the founder of the competition, Len Taylor. Thanks went to Bobby Keeping for his excellent organisation of the day. The next Monthly Stableford venue is Crane Valley Golf Club, Friday the 22nd June, tee off 2.30pm 20th July – Ferndown Forest GC 24th August – Canford Magna – match vs Southbourne Ex Serv. 21st Sep – The Dorset Golf & Country Club 12th Oct – Queens Park – MMC Championship Lists are on the notice board - all interested Golfers should ensure they get their name in place now. Football – another successful season The team has just finished our second season in the Saturday Bournemouth Leagues. A successful campaign saw us win the league by 13 points, securing the title with three games still to play. We were the first team, in any of the Bournemouth Saturday or Sunday leagues to win a division this season, so a great achievement. An outstanding year has seen us win 18 out of 22 league games, drawing two and losing two. We did not find the same success in the cups but that enabled us to focus on the league. Our success was founded upon a solid defence who have only let in 24 goals in the 22 league games. Dan Goff has been unbeatable in goal. In front of him, Ben Walker has been particularly impressive in the centre of the defence. The midfield has consistently out-classed the opposition with Paul Moss and Mark Kenny excelling. Up front, the youthful pacey partnership of Lee Moss and Rob Smith have out-witted many a defence. {Can you guess who might have written this? – Ed} And Richard Biggs has graced the bench like a pro, coming on to score in the last game of the season! Goals have been shared around this year with Lee Moss just pipping Rich Preston as leading goal scorer by 17 goals to 15 and three other players having scored at least nine each. However, it is not individuals that win games and the biggest factor in our success has been the ability to field a consistent squad week after week. They all deserve congratulations on our success. A big thank you also to Clive Sansom our manager who took the helm just before Christmas. Clive has used his wealth of experience to build on the season’s good start and to steer us to the title. On an individual level, congratulations go to the following people who received trophies at our presentation evening: Players’ Player of the year: Paul Moss Manager’s Player of the year: Dan GoffSupporters’ Player of the year: Mark KennyLeading goal scorer: Lee MossClubman of the year: Clive Sansom And finally, a big thank you to the Football Club committee who help run the football club so smoothly, to all the supporters who come along to cheer the team on and to everyone who continues to support the football lottery bingo run by Kelvin Farrant. This helps us enormously in running the club. Congratulations to the most recent winners: Nigel Farrant, Pat Rattew, Dave Sexton, Gary Boyt and Charlotte Saunders. Bowls We have matches against Southbourne on 10th June and 5th August. Just like the snooker competition, the games are always played in high spirits but, even so, the competition is strong and according to organiser Eric Jesty, “It’s time we brought the trophy home.” The matches (triples) are played on Sunday mornings with lunch (and no doubt a small tipple) to follow. Anyone interested in taking part, contact Eric and keep an eye on the Notice Board. Recent events AGM - 21st March This year’s AGM passed without drama with the membership seemingly pleased with where the Club is at. Three life memberships were awarded on the night: Mike Andrews, our local historical expert with a long family association with the Club Mo Marshall, long time member of the Committee Jeff Arnold who retired after 15 years of outstanding service behind the bar. We all wish him well. Grand Easter Egg Draw A fantastic effort this year saw around 60 prizes being won. A big thank you to everyone who sold tickets and we must give a special mention to Keith Ford who snarled at every person entering the premises until they coughed up. The event raised around £300 towards the charity fund. Annual Dinner Dance, Hoburne Park - Friday 2nd March 2007. If you have any views on this event then please e-mail them very soon to Newslink or write to Roger Masterman, Chairman, Entertainments Committee. Upcoming events Pussyfoot Dinner - Sat 30th June Tickets on sale in the Club Wednesday 23rd May from 7:30pm. Price: £19.50. See notice board for subsequent ticket sales dates. Ascot – 28th July Tickets on sale 04 July priced £20. See the notice board nearer the time. Marrow Competition – advanced warning! For those of you who need to accurately plan you day of planting, the Marrow Comp will be Sunday 2nd September. Get netted! If you have a computer at home and are connected to the internet then you can receive a lot of Club information that way. For example, if you visit the Club’s web site at www.mudefordmens.co.uk you can view an electronic version of Newslink and help save some trees. Also, there is plenty of information about football, cricket, golf and angling. If you’re on e-mail then write down your address, along with your name and membership number and drop it in the wall safe or simply e-mail the Club. John Oliver will then add you to his list and you will receive club announcements and reminders etc. And of course, you can e-mail your submissions to Newslink (bangs head against wall). Members’ special offer Did you know that Club members get a discount at Sewards Auto Centre? Well, if you visit the Grange Road branch you will qualify for a 10% discount on parts and labour and can have a FREE 25 point safety check. For more information, call 01425 282444. A politically incorrect tale … The club was busy, seats were at a premium. So it was that the following conversation was overheard, as an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman shared the last available table. The trio were talking about their families. “I have a son,” said the Englishman, “he was born on St. George’s Day and so we decided to call him George.” “What a coincidence.” added the Scotsman. “My lad was born on St. Andrews day, so, naturally, we called him Andrew.” “I don’t believe this!” replied the Irishman. “The same thing happened to us. What are the chances of this happening? I can’t wait to get home to tell the missus, and our lad, Pancake.” A thrilling CIU notice “Keep Quiet In the past, a number of clubs have been prosecuted following visits from the Environmental Health Officers after they failed to ensure that entertainers kept the noise underneath a level deemed acceptable for neighbours nearby. Although clubs must consider that as an important issue, there is another more important issue now, which is affecting clubs when one considers the issue of noise. This is the number of clubs now being warned by authorities about the noise their members make when leaving the club at night. Clubs must warn their members not to shout farewells across the car park, bang car doors, nor should they allow taxis to pap horns to come and collect members. Clubs must be seen to be good neighbours to the people who live nearby, and it advisable to have notices to remind members of their responsibilities." Contact info: Write to Newslink via the Club. E-mail xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Call Rich Leyshon on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx