SOCIABOULES AT KIRDFORD Sunday July 4th

David Lipman reports:

Our Sociaboules on Sunday was very successful, despite it being the anniversary of the day we let America loose on the world in 1776.

We had visitors from Worthing (5), Brighton (2), Adur (4) and Handcross (3) plus 14 of our own players, completely filling our terrain with games of 4 players.

Our Chairman, Paul, came at the beginning to open the play and at the end to distribute the prizes and thank everyone for a great day.

Five games were played in the sunshine, three before lunch and two after, as is the usual system.

The overall winner with +40 was Christine (someone will have to knock her off her pedestal soon or Mike will not be able to live with her!).

Second was Ray from Adur, followed by Melanie, Caroline and David.

Prizes were bottles of wine.

We also gave prizes to the “friendliest” players, one each from Worthing, Kirdford and Adur.

Caroline and Ingrid ran a very successful raffle which paid for the prizes and left some over to purchase more bottles for the future.

Altogether a day that was obviously enjoyed by all. Perhaps we ought to return visit these clubs on their Sociaboules Days.

BETTY’S PLATE Saturday July 3rd

The Winner, Christine Kateley

David Lipman reports:

Another sunny Saturday brought out 28 of our club members for a very competitive morning. It was nice to see more of those members who only come on rare occasions.

Kathy, who is still unfortunately unable to play, sat and watched and presented the Plate at the end of the morning. The overall winner was Christine Kateley, by a full 10 points ahead of anyone else.

The box of chocolates for the friendliest player went to Sue Ross.

Remember Clicking on a photo in the Blog will automatically enlarge it

The Anniversay Cup

Carolyn Tuthill reports:

I am about to have the Anniversary Cup engraved with all the past winners of this most sumptious trophy! My list is incomplete as I do not have a record of the 2005 winners. To jog your memories I can list those that I have:

2001 - Don Smith - Sonia Lee - Jean Vanstone
2002 - Jeff Fox - Jean Vanstone - Bobby Newberry
2003 - Melanie Roberts - Bob Knight - Joan Dyas
2004 - Jean Vanstone - Dan Dyas
2005 - ?
2006 - Joan Dyas - Paul Roberts
2007 - Benny Goodman - Sue Ross
2008 - Benny Goodman - Sonia Lee
2009 - Ingrid Richards - Mike Kateley
2010 - Sonia Lee - Carolyn Tuthill

Has anyone won this trophy who is not listed above? Otherwise I will have to go ahead and leave a blank - Carolyn

Anniversary Cup Competition 19th June 2010

Mike Kateley reports:

Twenty eight members competed in the 2010 Anniversary Cup competition at Kirdford on Saturday 19th June 2010. The competition was followed by an excellent Bar-B-Q supplied by Linda and Karl.

The winning team (Lee & Tee) Carolyn and Sonia who won all three games with 19 plus points, second position went to (D’azel) David and Hazel Lipman with 2 wins and plus 21 points followed in joint third place by (The foxy ones) Ian and Margaret Fox and (The Speedbirds)Mike and Christine Kateley both with two wins and a plus score of 11 points.

To the surprise of all present the booby prize was awarded to Benny and Margaretha Goodman with three games lost and a minus 18 points.

Being the wedding day of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden Margaretha made two typical Swedish cakes which we all enjoyed with our coffee after the first round.

The competition was efficiently managed by Mike and Christine who were thanked for their efforts by Captain Ian and all present.

We are given to understand the first Anniversary Cup competition was held on the same date in 1993, a very appropriate date for this year’s event.

Photos - courtesy of John Sylvester



The Winners



The Runners-Up



The Loosers

Semur visit - July/August

Ian Fox reports:

Hi Everyone,

As a club and group members of the Cranleigh Semur Twinning Association we have been invited to put on an event for the French delegation arriving in Cranleigh for the long weekend of 29th July – 1st August. Our slot is proposed as a boules session at Kirdford on Sunday 1st August AM. with lunch at own expense. Numbers attending are variable but could be around 30. I understand amongst the visitors will be persons who are interested in the boules playing element and with whom I would like to establish sound contacts for Boule exchange; more important than ever following the “Likely Ladettes” recent storming performance in La Belle France. More details will be communicated as I get them.

There is to be a casual drinks “do” at Cranleigh School in the evening of 1st August around 1800 hrs. to which we are invited.

I hope we can put on a good show for Semur and look forward to everyone’s participation.

Julia Brown the Chairman of the Association is short of beds for the visitors, if you can help in this respect, it will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know details asap.

SOCIABOULES

Carolyn Tuthill reports:


Sociaboules are a group of now six clubs in the Surrey, Sussex and Kent area who take turns in hosting a melee every year.

The melee consists of 5 games, three in the morning and two after lunch with prizes for the winners and runners up. Normal start time is 10 am.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we at Kirdford are due to host the next meeting which will take place on Sunday July 4th.

It would be much appreciated if we could have a good turn out of ABC members, so please put it in your diary!

In order to at least partly fund the event, we will be holding a raffle and prizes for this would be much appreciated.

These events are listed on the Club Event Dates for 2010 which I urge you to look at.

The final two Sociaboules dates are:

22nd August at Cuckmere

5th September at Worthing (Field Place)

Any questions to Carolyn, please ...

LES GIRLS BOULES TRIP TO FRANCE JUNE 2010

Carolyn Tuthill reports:

Tuesday 1st June , a new month – a new adventure. Four of us arrived at Gatwick, Ingrid, Sue Ross & myself, chauffeured by Tony Riches complete with hat! Where we met up with Sonia & Ray from Adur bound for Montpellier to take part in BBC13 – The Fanny Tour.

First obstacle – huge queues at Gatwick, however passengers for Montpellier were called out and fast tracked through check in & security to enable us to board our plane on time. Left Gatwick in 15C (or less) arrived Montpellier in 25C+ and sunshine – result!!

Arrived campsite 6.45pm met by Jeff & Janet Fox and Bob & Coral Callard welcomed by John & Janet Price and many others whom we had met before. After we had been issued with our new white polo shirts which you will be seeing us wearing on the piste!

We joined everyone for a welcome buffet at John & Janet’s Chalet, where we were debriefed as to what was planned for the next 10 days.

Wednesday 2nd June – woke up to clear blue skies and warm temperatures. Joined Sonia my chalet companion, for tea on the balcony awaiting the arrival of croissants for breakfast (brought along by Ingrid from the shop!).

After a lazy morning, we went off to Portrignes which was a new venue for our first matches, after some good games with the local club, they entertained us magnificently to a feast of paella and copious amounts of wine – we even came back with three bottles of wine each!

Thursday 3rd June – today we are having a melee at the campsite terrain, so we can enjoy a leisurely morning followed by fierce competition amongst some 40+ players from all parts of the UK We were delighted that Sue Ross managed to get into the semi finals. Unfortunately she came up against Pauline from Oxshott, whom many of you will know, who beat her 13-12 in the closest of games.

Friday 4th June – Off to Serignan to experience a traditional French Market. Then on to the local market at Valras which was much bigger so we were able to buy quite a lot of the local tat!

After lunch we went off to Lespignan where Sonia & I were at last able to play together and managed to win two out of our three games before enjoying another French feast in the grounds of a sadly rather neglected, but once magnificent, town house which we would all like to buy! Between us we managed to win 4 bottles of wine in the raffle which is more than we could manage on the piste!

It has been lovely to become reacquainted with old friends, especially Daniel who gave us the lovely plaque last year which is now hanging in the Foresters. He was proudly wearing his Amities shirt which was sent to him after our return last year. He had been looking forward to seeing Benny & Margaretha, so he was disappointed they were not with us. However it encouraged us to communicate with him in our very rusty French! He sends warm regards to all who know him, and has taken many photographs, which we hope he will send us in the fullness of time.

I must mention that for the last 3 days (almost since the beginning of our trip) Bob Callard had been wearing a “fanny” medal. It is traditional that this medal be worn
when you are fannied, to be passed on to the next fannied player! Unfortunately for Bob – nobody had owned up to being fannied and he is still wearing the medal – soon Coral will have to start polishing it!

Saturday 5th June – Another sunny day – we played in the afternoon here at the terrain entertaining over 40 players from Valras – the nearest local club. Personally I went from the sublime to the ridiculous, playing first with the local champion and securing an easy win and ending up with a holidaymaker from near Paris who was staying on the campsite – this was destined to end in tears – he WAS playing with leisure boules!

No places in the final for any of us this time, but we went on to spend a very happily evening with our French quests for a meal followed by a disco. One good thing – Bob has managed to pass on the fanny medal!

Sunday 6th June - No boules today, instead Jeff & Janet Fox kindly took Sonia & me with Ray to Carcassonne. After driving through heavy rain we finally got to the beautiful old town where we spent the afternoon browsing round the shops after a great lunch in one of the restaurants. (the rain had stopped by the time we arrived) leaving a perfect temperature for exploring. On our return to Valras, we went to have a BBQ with Mary & Mike Sheppard (Southern Counties players whom some of you will know). After this Sonia & I came back to our little chalet and played rummi-cub again!

Monday 7th June – again free morning then off the Serignon to play the local team Had good games 2 of us and 1 French man playing in triples – I played with Ron from Oxshott and our Frenchman let us down by shooting when he should have pointed in for game losing us a place in the finals.

However Sue Ross was on the opposing team (who beat us 13-11) and went on to win 13-1 in the final. She will be bringing home a big cup! Her French team mate commiserated with me by giving me his trophy – so I too have something to bring home! We ended the day with Boeuf en daube en plein aire on the boules terrain – tables and chairs were provided!

Tuesday 8th June – another free morning followed by a doubles competition here at the campsite – this was eventually won by 2 Frenchmen whom Sonia and I had beaten 13-6.

Strange or what! All to do with how many wins and points for and against. Sue’s luck ran out and she is now wearing a “fanny” medal.

Wednesday 9th June – in the afternoon we went to play not too far away with the club at Valras. 1 French & 1 UK against each other. Twice I played against Sonia – managed 3 wins out of 4 and +3 not good enough. We all got a bottle of wine and Sue compounded her losing streak by picking up another fanny medal! After the evening meal we had Karioke – Sonia was in her element although most of us had a go!

Thursday 10th June – Feeling very fragile today! Decided I could not play in the singles this afternoon however this cleared the way for Sonia to reach the final where she played against the local stud Claude! (She did suggest he should be her prize). Unfortunately she was narrowly beaten by him but with true gallic chivalry later in the evening she was awarded the trophy which you will see on display!

Friday 11th June – Well it’s over – very emotional goodbyes to all our friends and looking forward to next year.

Footnote: Ingrid, Sue, Sonia & I had to open our cases at Montpellier Airport and ditch what we could as we were all overweight! All the silverware you see.

Hope you enjoyed reading of our exploits – lol Carolyn

News from Anthony and Marji Simmonds-Gooding

Paul Roberts reports:

I think many of our members will be interested in the news from Marji Simmonds-Gooding. Many of the newer members will not know her of course. She is the daughter of Wendy Pennock, one of the original members of ABC. She used to live at Birchetts Brook, a large house at Holmbury St Mary, where they hosted the Pennock Trophy for a number of years. In the early days the trophy was played for by the ABC club members plus large numbers of members of Wendy's extended family. It was always a very sociable and boozy occasion with the drink provided by Anthony Simmonds-Gooding in bottles delivered by the wheelbarrow-load from his garage.

After Wendy's death the running of the Pennock Trophy moved to Kirdford and the Simmonds-Goodings came along and played a couple of times before they moved away to live in London.

The last time I saw Anthony, I was playing golf at Gatton Manor near Ockley. I was about to play my second shot on the third hole when a ball thudded into the ground no more than three feet from where I was standing. I looked to see where it had come from and there was a very large man striding towards me. I seized my 7 iron and walked towards him. It was Anthony, full of apologies, offering to buy me drinks in the clubhouse afterwards.

Joan Dyas sends us the following email:

From: Marjorie Simonds-Gooding
Subject: RE: Pennock Trophy
To: dandyas@talk21.com
Date: Thursday, 10 June, 2010, 15:55

Hello Joan

 How wonderful to hear from you.... and many, many congratulations on winning the Pennock Trophy!

  I am so sorry that this has taken so long for me to reply but we have been in Ireland where we spend a lot of time and I lost my blackberry on the ferry on the way over and then to make matters worse the whole broadband system seized up on the system I was on – the trouble with being up a mountain on the far west coast of Ireland!

  We are now back in London and able to reply to you by email.  We are both thrilled to hear that the Pennock Trophy is still going strong.  I will forward your lovely email on to my sister Barbie and to our children (Wendy’s grandchildren) who will be very touched by this.

  Anthony and I were also very touched that you had the picture still of the grandchildren in 2001.  There are now 9 grandchildren and another due in November!  If it wouldn’t bore you too much I will send the cards since then – i think i have copies of some of the cards since then!  What is your address?

  We are both very well and think of you all very often – what happy days we all had together.
 
  I had breast cancer once (or twice) more since I probably saw you and I am now something of an amazing statistic as 3 breast cancers is very unusual if not unheard of, according to my oncologist and breast cancer surgeon!  I feel exceptionally well, play tennis (2 hours at a time at Queens Club or Hurlingham Club, which are both on our doorstep), several times a week, play a lot of golf, sit in Youth Court as a magistrate and see huge amount of all the children and grandchildren, nearly all of whom live very close to us.

 Anthony is Chairman of the new Rose Theatre in Kingston, which recently had Judi Dench in Midsummer Night’s Dream and has many other exciting productions and he is also still Chairman of other companies and charities.

  We both feel very privileged that we are healthy and have so many friends and family and we particularly value all of you, Les Boulistes and the happy times we spent with you.  We all still miss Wendy very much, but have such happy memories of her with all of you at Burchetts Brook and all the other boules venues going back as far as days at Crondal.

  Congratulations again on winning the Pennock Trophy

With love to you all from both of us

Marji

North Downs League

David Lipman reports:

On Tuesday, 18th May, the ABC Bees played Bordon.

Regretably we lost, but by only one point!!

Actualy they won 5 games to our 4, but the last game ran out of time with the score at 8 all.

"Last end" was called and they got one point!!! C'est La Vie

On Wednesday (today), 19th May, we were visited by 10 members of a recently formed Club from Hillingdon.

After lunch, with some of our members, we mixed up with 16 of our club and played at least three games each in the balmy sunshine, which was enjoyed by all. It was nice to play boules against people we did not know, with no pressure.

The County Club Boules Evening

Peter Rauch reports:

On Friday evening, 14 May, we hosted the annual Guildford County Club melee.

As usual player numbers, attendance and arrivals proved fluid and variable, but we managed to get in two games and a good fun evening was had by all, including Peter & Mavis and Mike & Christine, who dog's bodied, umpired, refereed and generally filled in the gaps in teams as ABC hosts.

Over the years the standard of play and participation has improved immensely. Play was followed by a jolly supper in the Foresters.

Richard Middlehurst won the Mens with 21 points and Laura Sexton won the Ladies, also with 21 points. There was fierce competition for the Consolation Prize which was won by Nick Butterworth with a minus 22 score card!

Cranleigh and Semur-en-Auxois Twinning Association

Newsletter April 2010

Schools
Park Mead school continues its links with the Remparts School in Semur via he ‘visio-conference’ and Glebelands School, Cranleigh Primary school (formerly St Nicolas) and St Cuthbert Mayne, have expressed an interest in this and contact details have been exchanged.
In addition, the Duke of Kent School has set up links with St Joseph school in Semur and both schools are encouraging their students to exchange correspondence etc. St Joseph school had already arranged a visit to England in May – and are including a visit to Cranleigh!

Student Exchanges
We are continuing to explore the possibility of further exchanges – if you know of any students who would be interested in visiting Semur or in hosting a French student from Semur then please do let me know. We have dealt with a number of enquiries from both sides.

Commerce
There is a page on the Chamber website that refers to the twinning and includes contact details for anybody wishing to get involved – see http://www.cranleighchamber.com/twinning-businesses/twinningwebsites.aspx

I provide updates to Cranleigh Initiative as well as the Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce regarding progress of twinning matters generally.

Visit to Semur by Alan Golden, Cranleigh Editor of the Surrey Advertiser
We hope that Alan will be able to visit Semur later this year. This would provide great publicity for the twinning as well as for the town and area generally.
Thank you to Alan for his help in publicising Café Cranleigh in the Surrey Advertiser.

Membership
Annual subscriptions (a very reasonable £10 per family) are now due for 2010. The monies go towards funding the local events to raise awareness, running and admin costs (e.g. the newsletter) as well as the visits from the French to Cranleigh. We do not receive any public funding whatsoever …….so every penny helps!

Village Signs
As you will hopefully have noticed the signs are now up! Whilst it took substantially longer than originally anticipated to organise, we are all delighted that they are now in place, and hope that they will raise awareness of the twinning.

Social Events
Drinks Reception and Wine-tasting
The Drinks Reception and Wine Tasting on 12th February in the Reading Room at Cranleigh School was a great success. It gave the opportunity for members to meet each other as well as other interested parties at a fun social event! Our friends from the European Friendship Club in Semur gave us some wine that was included in the tasting and some local gateaux. A big thank you to Cranleigh School for supporting us with this event.

Café Cranleigh - Coffee and Croissant anyone?
On 20th March we held a French themed morning in the Band Room, Cranleigh. As well as showing great waitressing skills in serving coffee and croissants children from Park Mead School entertained us by singing some French songs. Local Boules groups were there too giving demonstrations (or such as they could with the dismal weather!) The event was open to the public and we were very pleased with the response – so much so that we plan to do it again, hopefully in better weather!
The date we have arranged for the next Café is 10th July- put it in your diaries now!

General
The return visit by the French to Cranleigh this year will be on the weekend of 30th July -2nd August. We are finalising a programme of events but wish to keep it as informal and flexible as possible. If you are able to host a family then please do get in touch with me as soon as possible. Thank you to those who have already given their details. All the host families had a great time on the last visit and some long lasting friendships were made. At present we are not sure of numbers attending but please add your name early to avoid disappointment!

Julia Brown
Chair Semur-Cranleigh Twinning Association April 2010
cranleigh-semur@hotmail.com

Pennock Cup

We refer ABC members to the Cranleigh Petanque Club blog site:

http://cranleighpetanqueclub.blogspot.com/

for the latest news on the Pennock Cup event.

Wasps v. Cranleigh Petanque Club

Ingrid Richards reports:

On 24th April, the Wasps played their first away match of the season against the new Cranleigh Petanque Club in Cranleigh.

The team was: Margaretha & Benny Goodman, Carolyn Tuthill and Sonia Lee and Tony Riches and Ingrid Richards.

The terrain is rather "unpredictable" to say the least and we were struggling with it. However, we did not disgrace ourselves and the end result was 5-4 to Cranleigh. Margaretha & Benny won one of their games, Carolyn & Sonia won one and Tony and myself won two. Well done everybody.

We finished the afternoon with sandwiches in glorious sunshine.

Terrain Dressing

Ian Fox reports:

This is the first dressing to be applied to our Terrain since it was constructed about 10 years ago. The dressing is exactly the same as was originally laid thanks to some detective work by Paul & Ian. It took about 1.5 hours on Tuesday, 27th April 2010 to spread and level the dressing. A really good soaking and rolling now should consolidate the whole. We can all expect the playing characteristics to change from now on. My grateful thanks to all who helped on the day.

The Working Party and finished product


Spreading the dressing


The dressing heap as delivered

ABC Bees v. Bordon in the NDL

David Lipman reports:

ABC Bees played Bordon at Kirdford on Tuesday, April 20th.

We won. What else is there to say!!!!

Each couple (Kateleys Lipmans and Myles) won 2 games.

Special mention must be made of Jill and Alex's contributions as this was their first ever match for the club in the NDL - well done!!!!

Final Score 6-3

ABC Wasps v Claygate Bedouins

Ingrid Richards reports:

On Sunday, 18th April the ABC Wasps had their first match in the NDPL against the Claygate Bedouins, at Kirdford.

We started at 2pm and the Bedouins were there in good time to parctice and they brought 3 extra players, whom they used for substitutes during the match. The game was played in glorious sunshine.

Our team was Benny & Margaretha, Carolyn & Jean Vanstone and Tony Riches and myself (Ingrid).

Benny & Margaretha won all three games, Carolyn and Jean won two, but I'm afraid to say that Tony & myself were the "weakest link" and lost all our games (not for want of trying!)

The match stood at 4 games all with Benny & Margaretha trailing 11-12 when Margaretha managed to put her last two boules nearest to the cochonnet and with that we won the match - well done everybody!

We finished off with a cream tea in the pub. A great day!

North Downs League

Peter Molsher reports:

The Bees, represented by Valerie & John, Barbara & Peter(M), Muriel & Chris, played their first fixture of the season this month at Crondall resulting in a 6 - 3 win for the home side. Two of the lost games went to a close
finish.

This is one of the oldest fixtures in the NDPL calendar; we were invited by Crondall in 1993 to join them in starting a new league. The other founders were Arford (now Bordon), Leatherhead (now Oxshot), and Sun Inn(at Dummer). They were joined in the second season by Kingsclere, Chilworth(Percy Arms)[the club from which Mary Robson joined us] and Racing Club.

Clive Clarke was elected NDPL chairman for that season and made and presented the Runners Up trophy on behalf of Amitiés.

Grand National Draw

The Results of the Grand National Draw were:

First - Margaretha with "Dont Push It" ... £25

Second - Ingrid with "Black Apalachi" ... £10

Third - Margaret Fox with "State of Play" ... £5

Congratulations to all three ladies ... High Street sales will no doubt soar this week!

A Fox in Oz ...

A Report from the Antipodean Fox now back in his UK den.

Here are 4 pics. of our sole exposure to Boules in Oz.

This club one of several in the Perth metropolitan area is in an upmarket
suburb called Subiaco about a five minute drive from Perth city center and
the same from Kings Park, a part Bush, part planted area, several times the
size of any London park stretching from the city center to the Swan river.

Margaret on the terrain, one of several each considerably bigger than Kirdford. We learned that this club hosts many of Western Australia's largest ompetitive meetings.



Now that's a club house! Doesn't the grounds man keep it looking well? Part of a community facility we think.



Well that's enough boule playing, have a drink. The going rate in the club house was between 1&2$AUD (58p)-(1.16p)for all drinks. The temperature that day at around 1500hrs was at least 40 degrees and no breeze.



Some of the more serious players!
Margaret and I selected our boules from an ad hoc collection of mostly mismatched boule with the clubs apologies.

Carolyn’s Fanny takes the Title

Paul Roberts reports:

The first Trophy of the year was won by our Secretary last Saturday. In a keenly contested melee, the Committee Trophy was won by a narrow margin by Carolyn Tuthill with 3 wins and +23 points from Mr Consistent Mike Kateley with 3 wins and +17.

The last game proved decisive when Carolyn and her partner fannied their opposition (+13). Mike won his last game but could only manage 13-7 (+6). When asked the reason for her success Carolyn paid tribute to her partner in the last game saying “I owe it all to him!”.