Thurso bowlers aiming for a spring return to green
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Members of Thurso Bowling Club are aiming to get back on the green in a limited way this spring after missing the whole of 2020.
They also hope to run some competitions, although everything will depend on Covid-19 guidelines as Scotland emerges slowly from lockdown.
Brian Cormack, the club's sponsorship convener and press secretary, explained: "We were not able to hold our AGM this year but it is planned to hold it as soon as we can. All committee members have agreed to stay in position until this is possible so the club can run and hopefully bring us to a position of getting back to bowling.
"We hope that, with the help of the vaccination programme, we will see some action on the green sometime in the spring but no date has been suggested and there will be a few things to put in place before this can happen – sanitising stations, information posters and so on.
"I would hope that we would see some but probably not all of our competitions being played again. This will depend on what the government guidelines are regarding numbers being able to meet in an outside space."
Thurso's successful 2019 season came to an end in September of that year. "Little did we know what was ahead," Brian recalled.
"We held our AGM in February 2020 and were just starting to hear more about Covid-19 in the UK but didn’t consider at the time that the new season would be affected.
"As time went on and we were placed into lockdown it started to dawn on everyone how serious this virus was and we got together as a committee to consider our way forward. With the majority of members being in the high-risk category, the committee took the hard decision to close the club for business for the 2020 season and protect our members as best we could."
He explained that the two Wick clubs, Rosebank and St Fergus, had both opened later in the season. Both kept in contact with the national governing body Bowls Scotland and adhered to its guidelines.
Bowls Scotland reported that around 50 per cent of affiliated clubs in Scotland opened at some level during the 2020 season.
In the 2019 season Thurso had 119 full members. The committee set the membership fee to a third of the normal annual level, to help with running costs over the year, and 107 members paid their annual subscription.
"This was greatly appreciated by the committee," Brian said. "The club also received a small business Covid grant."
Many members missed the social aspect of the sport.
"It was hard over the year for a lot of our members, especially those who enjoyed the social side of bowls, taking part in the helter-skelters through the week and meeting up daily for a throw and a cup of tea," Brian said.
Club president Marina Bain kept everyone informed by sending a monthly report via email and Facebook outlining the latest government guidelines and anything that was happening at the club, such as green maintenance.
Green convener Alan Morrison, with help from his partner Marina, carried out maintenance throughout the year to keep the playing surface in top condition.
The club's social convener Douglas Morrison set up a regular Saturday night quiz over Zoom.
Club treasurer Lorna Cormack, with the help of her son Danny Hitchin, visited members during June and July and recorded a clip of them singing part of Vera Lynn's song We’ll Meet Again. Lorna edited the clips and posted the song onto the club's Facebook page which attracted more than 2600 views.
Lorna and husband Brian usually run a gin-tasting night in February with more than 60 people in attendance. As this was not going to be possible, they decided to run a Ginsmas raffle in December. They drew a prize a day for the first 19 days of the month and visited the club's competition sponsors to draw the tickets.
The club shopped locally for most of the prizes, with a couple being donated – one from Brian Auld, of the Ayr Northfield Bowling Club, and a bottle of Crofters Tears from the Ice and Fire Distillery at Latheronwheel from Jacqueline Black.
Bowls Scotland has held various Covid club calls and Marina Bain has attended some of these along with a Covid e-learning course.
The governing body continues to update clubs and has produced documentation to help them get up and running this season, depending on government rules.
