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Family Fun Day at Helsby.
Once again, our Club was pleased to help the lovely Michelle Pickstock, and other organizers from Helsby Community Sports Club, with their Family Fun Day, which was held on Saturday the 10th of July.
The actual day chosen for the event could not have been better, with bright sunshine and a warm breeze being the order of the day, thereby ensuring a capacity crowd and an enjoyable day for all the family.
The first of our Club members on duty, under the watchful eyes of George Randles, were David Roaf, Gareth Williams and Don Paterson, who quickly got things organized and set up “Checkpoint Charlie” for the management of visitors to the event, who arrived either on foot or by car.
Our Club members were asked to either collect entrance monies at the gate, or to organize the safe and meticulously neat parking of visitor’s cars. As can be seen, despite the efforts of Alan Gardner to form neat lines of cars, Malcolm Davies’s regular lapses of concentration and judgement in the parking of cars were all too obvious!
Our efforts to provide a superb service were however enhanced by the use of Alan Laird’s walkie-talkie handsets. These allowed the entrance and car parking teams to remain in close contact with each other thereby ensure the smooth running of our management efforts. The truth however was somewhat different in that they were used to make calls that frequently involved colourful observations about the relaxed way things were being done by the other team members, or requests for “more tea and buttie’s please”.
As can be seen, the event itself was a great success, with a capacity crowd being treated to a wonderful family day out which had something for both young and old alike. We would like to congratulate all those who either organized, or helped with the event, and would confirm that next year, we once again hope that our Club will be asked to help with ensuring this wonderful Community Event goes from strength to strength.
Martin Mann’s “Fore”!
This year our Club member, Martin Mann, has been appointed the Captain of Helsby Golf Club, and wishing to incorporate into his year in office a fitting challenge that would allow him to use his golfing skills alongside his fundraising abilities, he decided to set himself a quite remarkable challenge.
The challenge was to raise monies for the Charity “Powered Wheelchairs For Severely Disabled Children” by travelling to the 4 Countries of the UK, and having a round of golf in each country all within the one day!
Now, as Martin said, “As an trained athlete I could do this by myself, but I am not a good navigator and I like company.” So, he drew together a small team of talented people to join him on this challenge, and these were:-
Sheila Fenwick – the Lady Captain of Helsby Golf Club.
Kath Wilkinson – a member of Helsby Golf Club who acted as Caddy to Sheila.
James Mann – acted as Transport & Logistics Manager as well as Caddy to Martin.
So … 4 Countries … Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales & England
4 Rounds of Golf …
in 1 Day …
21st June 2010 – Itinerary
| Northern Ireland. |
|---|
| Cairndhu Golf Club Arrive 3.30am Commence 3.50am with buggy’s and a driver for each. Time taken 2 hours 30 minutes. Finish 6.20am Journey time to Larne Ferry 15 minutes Arrival time 6.35am Latest time for checking in 6.45am Departure time 7.30am Arrive Cairnryan Port 9.30am |
| Scotland. |
|---|
| Journey
time to Wigtownshire County Golf Club 25 minutes Arrival time 9.55am Commence Golf at 10.10am (or earlier with buggies and drivers) Time taken 2 hours 15 minutes Finish 12.25pm |
| Wales. |
|---|
|
Journey time to Padeswood & Buckley 4 hours Arrival 4.25pm Commence Golf 4.40pm (Or earlier) Time taken with buggies and drivers 2 hours 15 minutes Finish 6.55pm I’ve allowed 25 minutes for showers/change of clothes at Padeswood & Buckley. Leave 7.20pm |
| And Finally - England. |
|---|
| Arrive Helsby Golf Club
7.45pm Commence Golf at 8pm or earlier with buggies, drivers and perhaps spotters. Finish 10.15pm 10.15 and 30 seconds - Treble Gin & Tonics |
For this final round of golf, it was with great pleasure that Theresa took over from James and acted as Caddy to Martin, thereby ensuring that Martin, Sheila and Kath did not get lost on the last leg of the challenge.
And sure enough, just as predicted, the Team finished their epic journey at 10.14 & 50sec, allowing themselves to get to their Treble G&T’s 10 seconds early!
Congratulations You Guy’s.
It is pleasing to report that Martin expects to raise some £8,000 for the Charity that is Helsby Golf Club’s chosen Charity for this year, and seen in our photograph is President Brian with other Club members, presenting a further cheque that will go towards the fund raising effort.
All the members of our Club send their hearty congratulations to all those who were involved, and those who supported Martin and Sheila in their Challenge that reaped such wonderful rewards.
Cancer Research UK - Race for Life 2010.
Sunday the 16th of May provided a bright, yet cool-ish morning to greet the competitors, their families, friends and supporters to Delamere Forest for this fantastic event.
The day was organized by their Events Director, the lovely Paula Jones, and we are pleased to report that 10 Club members along with Sylvia Tickle and Rick Hyde joined many other volunteers to help manage and marshal the event, ensuring that all the competitors navigate the course safely and successfully as well as having lot’s of fun prior to and following the race.
It must be said that the event was not only incredibly successful, but it was once again incredibly “PINK”, with numerous shades of this colour adorning the multiplicity of outfit’s being worn by those who ran.
We believe that the 1700 people who took part in Delamere Forest’s run will be part of a total of some 700,000 women from across the UK, taking part in over 230 similar events between May and July this year.
Cancer Research UK hopes that together the 2010 Race for Life series will raise a total of £60 million to fund the Charity’s life saving work. All we can say is, if that is not truly fantastic, then what is?
Sincere congratulations to all involved.
Now, just as an aside, numerous mothers were there with very young babies in support of the event, and it is wonderful to report that several of these babies were some 6 months(ish) old, yet we believe that the youngest was just 8 weeks old!
Rock on Kiddiewinkles!
In conclusion, we can assure the organisers that if Delamere Forest is chosen by Cancer Research UK for future events, our Club will be there to lend our help and support to this wonderful Charity and the work that it does.
International
Relations!
As soon as our Club member, Don Paterson, and his wife Paz, heard that another member of our Club was to visit Hong Kong, they started gathering a substantial amount of tourist information for them. Both had spent many years living and working in that fabulous city and were therefore able to pass on great ideas as to what to see and where to go.
Malcolm and Maggie Davies were due to have a brief 3 day stop-over in HK, as part of their return journey from Australia and therefore were given this information along with contact details of Paz’s sister, Elvie, with the directive that should help or assistance be needed whilst there, she was to be contacted as, in Don’s own words :-
“She Would Sort It!”
Now, as you might have expected, everything went well whilst visiting HK, however curiosity got the better of the two of them and wishing to meet and pass on their best wishes, a visit to see Elvie was arranged.
As proof of this high level Diplomatic Encounter, where lots of “entente cordiale” was on display, our photograph shows Elvie (on the left) with Maggie in the Reception foyer of The Mariners’ Club in Kowloon, where Elvie is one of the management staff.
For those who know Paz, there can be no mistaking the family resemblances, and it can be confirmed that Elvie is just as lovely, bubbly and charming as her sister.
