6th Annual Mayor’s Tournament
Mary Ann Booth’s first Mayor’s Tournament did her proud. I heard her say that this is one of her favourite community events. There were so many fantastic teams all celebrating the 40th birthday of the West Vancouver Foundation (and the 80th birthday of Bill) and giving generously. The weather was just perfect, and all the members of the West Vancouver Foundation, including their Young Philanthropists, made it a fun event.
Last year’s winners were piped in to relinquish their trophy and, ironically, after many hard-fought battles, the newcomers from the West Vancouver Tennis Club ended up winning. This is ironic because part of the prize was a free entry to the Heritage Club Games, of which they are the major organisers!
However, this is about our club; this is to highlight the effort that some of our members put in to make this a great community event. This is about Pat and Howie arriving about 8:15am. Howie watered the gardens, and Pat took two hours to sort out the bowls for the upper green. For these events, when every rink is full of at least eight, sometimes 12 bowlers, we need 16 bowls at each rink. The bowls now live in bags in a shed behind the upper green equipment shed, and the hope is that there will be either four black, or four brown matching bowls in each bag. This was not the case this morning, so thank heavens for Pat.
Stuart was next to arrive, followed by Jim and Roberta, who set up the greens. That was a huge task requiring green mats, blue mats, scoreboards, jacks, pushers and umbrellas for 31 rinks. Myrle was seconded to help the Lions, who always put on a fabulous barbeque. Tim was setting up and working the bar, as well as getting the golf flag into the ground for the ‘nearest the pin’ competition, which was made much more difficult this year by; putting the tennis ball markers in the way. All this takes time and effort. I love my job, which was keeping the scoreboard up-to-date, and another thank heavens for Grethe, who really needed to double check me! Keith, Derek , Grethe and Waldo helped newcomers to bowl, which was the usual organised chaos. Radka helped Tim with the bar, and joined in the taking down of all the equipment with Derek, Roberta and myself.
Here is the point; these events are critical to our existence. They provide the touchpoint numbers that ensure that we continue to be where we are.
Major players in the community love coming to these events; two thirds of the teams present also came last year, and many of those have been every year. Their other commitments prevent them from joining our club, but they wouldn’t miss their one chance to bowl and compete in this event for anything. The West Vancouver Police love it so much that have t-shirts saying “Lawn order, Special Bowling Unit.”
I met four of the 100 Women Who Care, a fantastic organisation which supports local charities. The Streamkeepers always come, as well as the Fit Fellas, the West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service, and the North Shore News team, who were celebrating its 50th birthday.
This year we had some newcomers, including a field hockey team and some fierce Black Ballers.
I am hoping that this introduction to our first of three major charity events will inspire our members, especially some of the newer ones, to come out and help. You can set up and take down the greens, you can put out the deck chairs, and I am sure there are relatively new bowlers who can show complete newcomers how the bowls roll, and where to stand on the mat as well as explaining the scoring. You will feel like an old hand – there’s no better way to learn than to teach!
In many areas of our club our regulars are pushing 80 or getting closer to 90 and it’s up to us youngsters in the 60-70 bracket to jump in and help, not only with these events, but with the gardens and the greens and rentals. On the weekends we could even call on those still working, the real youngsters in the 40-60 bracket. We need you; please help. It’s a great way to meet people.
See you soon, and a big thank you! Sue
Our other two major charity events:
July 27th – Children’s Hospital Charity
August 17th – The Heritage Club Games
