FEBRUARY, 2018

Mermaid Beach Bowls Club

Email: admin@mermaidbowls.com.au

Telephone 55723463

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THE CLUB

The 2018 Mixed Pairs Championship

was played on Sunday 21 January with

Toby Wight and Heather Hayward winner

against Graeme Perry and Anne McClure.

It was a close match and a great one to

watch. Congratulations to all players for

participating in the championship

On the 30th January, 2018 Mer-

maid Beach Bowls Club handed

over a cheque for $250 from the

“Wrong Bias Box” to Kathleen

Vlasic, the Gold Coast Area Co

-ordinator for ROSIES.

ROSIES was a popular choice

with our bowlers.

Kathleen gave a run-down of

the great work they do on the

Coast helping needy families

and individuals.

On a much cooler and showery day the 2018 La-

dies Pairs was played on the 2nd February with

Merlinda Gill and Rhonda Green winning 27 to 11

against Janice Lynn and Margaret Panousis. We

congratulate all players who participate in champi-

onships as the more the merrier and a better com-

petition for all..

2

Chairman’s Report:

On behalf of the Board of management and our club management we wish all mem-bers a very healthy and happy new year.

At our recent Board meeting I presented to the board a review of 2017 on what we did achieve, what was outstanding and our goals for 2018.

2017 was a challenging year however a huge amount was achieved. On our list of what needed to be achieved was nearly all ticked off except for the signage on Mark-eri St and the Gold Coast Highway. The other bone of contention is our web site which will be attended too over the next two months

The final proof for signage has been sent to the developer which will be table at their next board meeting. They did write back and apologise for the length in time coming back to us. It is the boards intention that that is installed by the end of February. The

Gold Coast City Council will be also approving the Highway sign which again we are pushing of the same time frame.

The other issued is the company that did the pebble- Crete surface around the club which is proving to be nothing short of a disaster. We are working to resolve this problem also.

So, what lies ahead in 2018 and what goals have been set by your board?

On the greens…………

The board has been working together with the bowls committee replying to letters that they have sent which have included Commonwealth games bowls teams visiting, inquiries re our banks on the greens, greens conditions, umpires which we can advise of these outcomes.

All applications that we receive re visiting teams using our club for practise events will only have use after any tournament, bowls days including all our current bowls events. Our club will come first! We must be reminded however that part of the lighting grant we received was that we did accommodate Commonwealth games teams. So, if you happen to see any of them here please make them welcome.

The weather conditions have a lot of influence of the greens now and we are working to gether with our contractor to keep them up to standard. At the moment we have NO extra water in our tanks, so we are drawing on town water and that reflect that our water bill has double for the 6-month period over the previous year.

Whilst in the subject of the greens its not anyone’s right to challenge the green keeper on what is happening or have an opinion to him. If you feel that you know more about greenkeeping maybe write to the bowls committee and they will evaluate your comments and send them onto the board. The banks of our greens are on the list for a possible grant this year. In the mean-time, I thank the men that had a working bee painting the surrounds recently. This is a huge help for our club.

For those that are umpires the board has passed that it will pay for our renewal when it falls due. The bowls committee have also alerted us to the disabled toilets taps that need attention. Mr Paul Russel will be attending to this ASAP. More about this further in this newsletter.

As members the correct chain of comment is very simple.

All correspondence about any part of bowls is to be directed to the Bowls committee who will discuss and forward to the board for further action and reply.

All areas of the club are to be directed to the club manager. If you feel that this has not been resolved, you may care to write to me directly. I will take this to our next board meeting.

A NOTE FROM JEFF BURCHELL

Off the Greens…….

Its is great to report what a fantastic December we had. The brainchild of Craig, Jag the Joker has had the club a hive of activity. Many functions were booked for Christmas parties. I thank Angie and Craig for the professional manner that they were delivered. The pleasing result was that the club had barefoot bowls sales of over $9,000 of 6-month period and $4,000 in De-cember alone a huge increase over the same period last year. This is very important part of the club as green fees for bowlers don’t cover all the associated costs of running a bowls club.

Our bistro is going along very well. It has posted a profit also. I know the ladies Christmas party were impressed with their lunch and we now have the best ribs on the Gold Coast. The secret is to keep the menu simple and fresh always. Thank you to all involved in the bistro ar-ea.

We are taking booking for the function room and have our FIRST wedding booked for March. On top of that booking we have bookings for a christening, 50th birthday, a 60th birthday al-ready. The Professionals hosted their hot summer auctions again which gave the club great exposure both on radio, press and internet. To say we are excited is an understatement for our function bookings!!! Keep it in mind if you have a special event

A recent inspection has revealed that the disabled toilets need better access. Wheel chairs need to be able to have direct access not through a door to get to the toilet.

We will now be removing the wall in front of the two toilets and replace with a small planter box to “break “the look.

The Gaming area of the club is an on-going work. For those that don’t play the machines with the new notes the machines wont except the old ones, so we have now put a plan in place to tidy up the gaming room. Through my contacts we have been gifted 2 machines that were traded in from another club. Thanks to Keven Ross-Johnson for picking these up.

We must stay on top of the game as many of the machines are so outdated that we don’t make a cent out of them. Watch the transformation as I continue to go on bended knee for help.

Can you Sing?

We will be kicking off a 6-week karaoke competition with the fabulous Toby as host in Febru-ary. Every Saturday night. Come on down and see the talent

The board has approved ways that we communicate to our members. A weekly email newslet-ter will be sent out each week. This is a non-negotiable task for management. Can you please upgrade your details if you are not receiving any forms Free Market Appraisal

My Listings

Kind regards,

Jeff Burchell Senior Sales Representative

M 0418 141 624

P 07 5572 8011

F 07 5572 0176

John Henderson Real Estate

2406 Gold Coast Highway, Mermaid Beach QLD 4218

jeff@prohenderson.com.au

www.prohenderson.com.au

3

MEN’S PRESIDENTS REPORT

John Henderson Real Estate Mermaid

Beach

SPONSORS

Pacific Fair

G’day Bowlers,

I hope you all had a great New Year and didn’t make too many resolutions that

you couldn’t keep. If you did have to break some, I hope you enjoyed what

you were doing anyway and didn’t upset anyone else in the process.

There’s not a lot to report on this month as January is always a pretty slow

month. With many bowlers still away on holidays and the hot weather scaring

some away from playing, our numbers for Tuesdays and Saturdays have been

down. But we have enjoyed good breezes most days making the temperatures

much more bearable.

On top of that, the Premier Sevens & Summer Nines inter-club competitions

have commenced, taking away numbers of our bowlers on Saturdays. But it is

good to see so many members who are prepared to represent the Club in those events. Their results so far

have been mixed, but I’ll leave it to others to report on that.

Our Australia Day Seafood Day was held under very hot temperatures and high humidity. We did not at-

tract as many teams as we hoped for, but it was still a great success considering the conditions. It is always

a risk that the weather at this time of year is a factor and it has been suggested that we may need to rethink

the format in future.

Special thanks to Stan and his Merry Band who came in on a recent Monday morning to do maintenance

jobs around the greens surrounds. You have probably noticed the results which have vastly improved the

appearance of the areas.

It has also been pleasing to see the increased numbers supporting the Bistro and other Club activities. The

Board and Management have introduced some new incentives to get bowlers to support the Bistro in par-

ticular and these seem to be generally well accepted. The numbers coming to our “Birthday Night” on the

second Friday evening of each month have really improved. The attraction of the raffle prizes, the mem-

bers’ draws and the Jag the Joker cash prizes have certainly had their effect. If members have not yet ex-

perienced these and the meals available, we ask that they come and try their luck and enjoy an enjoyable

and sociable dinner.

Co-President Betty & I have selected “ROSIES” as the recipient of our “wrong bias box” charity dona-

tion. They are a group on the Gold Coast who do great work helping needy families in many ways. There

is a newspaper article on the noticeboard describing their work. They are very appreciative of our dona-

tion. Thanks to all wayward bowlers who contributed.

Bowls Queensland’s CEO Brett Wilkie is writing a weekly column in the Gold Coast Bulletin concerning

bowls activities on the Gold Coast that will interest members. We may be able to publicise our own events

more through that article.

Until next month, enjoy your bowling.

Harry Schramm Men’s President

A MESSAGE FROM OUR LADIES’ PRESIDENT

Another month has gone, what a busy time we’ve had.

Premier 7’s well under way. All teams doing well. We had a double header on

the 27th and 28th.

Summer Nines started on 20th January. They also recorded a win. “GO MER-

MAID”.

Friday 26th January “Australia Day” with our chicken/prawn day went really well

with everyone enjoying the day.

Ladies don’t forget to put your teams in for our Gala Day 2nd March. Please re-

member to bring something for the raffle. Good Health and Good Bowling.

Betty Roonfeldt—President

Happy Birthday to all members celebrating their birthdays in January

including Peter Cunningham, Rob Craig, Rod Lynn, Isobel Robertson,

Pat McMahon & Rhonda Green about to blow out the candles. On

Birthday Friday. Come join us on Birthday Friday the month of your

birthday we know you will enjoy the evening

Merlinda Gill has had TWO chances in the last cou-

ple of weeks to pick the Joker & has just

missed. Here Club Manager Craig Parks consoles

her . Never mind Merlinda there is always another

turn to win.

Who moves the mat after the last bowl has been delivered? What if the last

bowl has to be returned and the mat has gone? Maybe you can’t agree

where it was! Well, there is a simple solution which is already used over-

seas and now being looked at by BA to become law.

“The last person to bowl will remove the mat after the bowl has come to a

legal rest”

Problem solved, maybe we should start getting used to doing this.

We are pleased that some members have been asking our umpires ques-

tions on the Laws. Keep it up, we are here to try and make your game uncomplicated and en-

joyable.

MU,MPS

AUSTRALIA DAY AT MERMAID

Toby, Linda and Ruth were really

dressed for the occasion. Love that hat Merlinda

Janice and Rod are definitely

a matching couple

Glenda and Harry make a

very handsome couple

Kevin you should have been

a model

Australia Day was a great success with two greens full, a lovely lunch of Barramundi and Prawns.

Compliments to the chef. The winners on the day were Alan Pritchard, Bernie Rose and Hugh Mac-

kenzie. Runners up were J. Taylor, J.J. Taylor and Stags. Third were Mario Ioucone, Toby Wight

and Vince Beckley.

Congratulations to the Best Dress Lady Merlinda Gill and the Best Dressed Man Kevin Ross-

Johnson.

Nearest to the Thong was won by Morgan Scott.

It was an extremely hot day and we thank all members who played and helped on the day under

quite difficult conditions. Special thanks to Marion McMahon for the time and effort she put in on

the day.

How great is it to have 300 people walk into our club

on a Tuesday night

The AUCTION night at our club's sponsor John Hen-

derson Professionals advertised on radio, paper and

the internet which gave great exposure for our club.

People enjoyed not only house hunting but the bistro

food and cool drinks

The Professionals have sent thanks for Craig and the

staffs’ expertise. They gave a big thumbs up for the

pizzas as well. It really is fabulous for the club and a

big thank you to John Henderson Professionals.

AUCTION NIGHT AT THE CLUB

Tim Wild, a new mem-

ber of our club, was very

happy on Friday 26 Jan-

uary when he won the

Members Draw of

$625.00. Congratula-

tions Tim

LET’S HAVE A LAUGH

TAKE A TAXI

I would like to share a personal experience about drinking and driving. As you know, some of us have been known to have brushes with the authorities from time to time, often on the way home after a "social session" with family or friends. Well, two days ago, this happened to me. I was out for an evening with friends and had more than several beers followed by a couple of bottles of rather nice red wine and vodka shots. Although relaxed, I still had the common sense to know I was slightly over the limit. That's when I did something I've never done before..... I took a taxi home. Sure enough, on the way, there was a police roadblock, but, since it was a taxi, they waved it past and I arrived home safely without incident. This was a real surprise to me, because I had never driven a taxi before. I don't know where I got it, and now that it's in my garage I don't know what to do with it.. So, anyway, if you want to borrow it give me a call.

I don't understand why prescription medicine is allowed to advertise on TV or why anyone would think of

trying one of the medicines after listening to the laundry list of warnings of possible side effects. But this is

definitely an exception!

Do you have feelings of inadequacy?

Do you suffer from shyness?

Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?

Do you sometimes feel stressed?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Cabernet Sauvignon.

** See below **

Cabernet Sauvignon is the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident. It can help ease you out of

your shyness and let you tell the world that you're ready and willing to do just about anything.

You will notice the benefits of Cabernet Sauvignon almost immediately and, with a regimen of regular doses,

you'll overcome obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want.

Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past. You will discover talents you never knew you had.

Cabernet Sauvignon may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use it but

women who wouldn't mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it.

Side effects may include:

Dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, loss of motor control, loss of clothing, loss of money, delusions of

grandeur, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth, and a desire to sing Karaoke and play all-night

Strip Poker, Truth Or Dare, and Naked Twister.

Warnings:

The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may make you think you are whispering when you are not.

The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love

them.

The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to think you can sing.

The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and bet-

ter looking than most people.

Please feel free to share this important information!

LIFE IS A CABERNET, OLD CHUM!