Announcement from Karen Evans, Games Executive.

(This is the text of the letter sent to all members this past weekend.)

March 26, 2021

Here we go!

Hello Oak Bay lawn bowling members,

I am pleased to inform everyone that we will soon be opening up our Club for the newb season.  Understandably, you must be a registered 2021/2022 member to participate in the lawn bowling and/or croquet games commencing on April 1st, 2021.  So, if you haven’t had the time to register yet, we encourage you to do so today.

Our hope was to continue the same format as we ended last season, but unfortunately as of March 15 the protocols through viaSport have changed and we are now only allowed 10 people at the club at one time. That being said, we are determined to play so we have altered our plans to accommodate 8 players per draw. Please note that we are working in two-week intervals, since we’re not sure if and when the protocols may change. We will all need to be flexible as the season progresses. This season will be a journey, with many different paths that we may need to travel but just like last year things will evolve. As protocols change and when weather improves there are lots of ideas we can look at to have more opportunities to play.

The following is the schedule for April 1 through April 11:

April 1-6: We will be having two lawn bowling draws, one at 10:30 am and one at 1:00 pm.

Commencing April 7, we will still have two draws daily but the 1 o’clock draw on Monday Wednesday and Friday will be for croquet introduction and lessons. The croquet lessons will run through until the end of April. Any full member is more than welcome to sign up for croquet.

Starting the week of April 12, we will be adding in some newcomer training sessions for bowling. Any new members, who haven’t bowled before, are required to take lessons before being able to sign up for daily draws. Information about training sessions and sign up will be sent out to the membership in the near future.

You will be able to sign up for lawn bowling and croquet starting Monday, March 29 at 9:00 am. Just like last year everyone needs to register to play. Go to the message banner in the middle of the club website home page and read the instructions which will take you to either the Fixed Draws page for bowlers, or to the Croquet page for croquet players. There you will see all the information about your sport, including how to register for a game.

Remember you need to come to your first session with the following three documents that can be found on the Fixed Draw webpage and the Croquet webpage of the website:

–     2021 acknowledgement form for phase 2 for bowling and/or croquet;

–     Insurance Waiver, initialled in three places and signed;

–     Single-day Screening Questionnaire. Please remember to make your own photocopies of the Single-day Screening Questionnaire as you will need to bring it each time you come to play.

PLEASE only sign up for one bowling and one croquet session per week for now so that more members get an opportunity to play. That being said, if you check the website between 6:00 and 6:45 pm the night before and there is an open space, please feel free to sign up.

REMEMBER to review the Reminder of Player Responsibilities document attached (below). This document contains important information so please read it carefully.

To conclude, I want to thank the members of the games committee, Andrew Harley, Garry Anderson and Chris Slade for all of their hard work getting this season up and running. A special thank you to Peter Woods for organizing the monitors, and for all the monitors that have signed on; and to Tanis Ranger for organizing the coaches for this season. Also, a shout out to Brent Jansen and David Anderson for all their enthusiasm and effort in getting croquet started as an activity at our club, and to everyone that contributed financially to acquire all the equipment. Lastly, thank you to all the members who helped set up the greens and did all the jobs necessary to start our season.

Looking forward to seeing everyone on the greens.

Karen Evans
Games Executive

 Please note the Reminder of Player Responsibilities