Updated October 31, 2016
As of Monday October 31, we will have two short mat rinks in Anderson House. All members need to be aware that their storage locker may be moved to make room for the second mat. It would help if you emptied your locker by October 27 – but you are NOT required to do so.
The short mat game has become very popular among our members. With just one mat, the weekday triples games all fill up very quickly, and many members find they cannot play when they want to. It has also become difficult to reschedule league games in the crowded calendar. A second mat will address both these problems.
Your co-operation is requested
To make space for the second mat, we will have to move most of the storage lockers during the weekend of October 29-30. Club members are asked to assist in this change where necessary:
- It would help if you emptied your locker no later than October 27, but you can leave the contents in place, if you wish. All lockers and contents will be put back in their usual places next April.
- Please reschedule any of your short mat games that conflict with the time allocated to moving the lockers. The move starts at 3:00 p.m. Friday October 28 and finishes late on Sunday October 30. Rescheduling should not be difficult because the new layout will offer many new time slots.
- Short mat players are asked to refer to the reformatted Short Mat Calendar and the Triples Booking Sheet to check that their own league games and triples bookings are still consistent with expectations. The data from these online documents had to be converted to the new format. If you see any mistakes in your schedule, please e-mail Andrew Harley with any changes that need to be made.
We’ll need to make some changes in short mat play
Initially, league games will stay on the “blue” mat. All other games will move to the “green” mat. The weekend tournaments will occupy both mats. League games can be re-scheduled on either mat.
Most triples games will expand to 12 players, with play to be arranged between the two mats in whatever format the players decide. Saturdays and Sundays will be restricted to six triples players to allow for the other mat to be used for rescheduled league games.
We may need to draw up a new etiquette to govern play on two mats. When two games are played simultaneously in the confined space of Anderson House, players need to be aware of what it going on in the other game. Generally, “respect the needs of the players on the other mat” should govern play for now. Once we have the experience of November and December play behind us, we will use it to draft some guidelines.
Lockers will be rearranged for the short mat season and then restored
As far as possible, arrangements will be made to re-position lockers of short mat players within Anderson House itself, or at least to provide storage space for their bowls and shoes in Anderson.
When short mat play ends in early April 2017, the lockers will all be re-installed in their original positions so that everything is ready for the new outdoor season.
Call for new players
Currently, around 75 of our members enjoy the short mat game, which means that around 135 of you miss out on an extra six months when you could be bowling. You do not even have to be a full member of the club to play; short mat is included in your social membership.
If you are an outdoor bowler, you already pretty much know the rules of the game—same bowls, same scoring, but a more intimate and social game in the confines of Anderson House. There is something for everyone, from the purely social to the seriously competitive. We have all the variations of the outdoor game and more:
- Daily social triples games (the equivalent of the daily draw in the outdoor game);
- separate men’s and women’s drop-in sessions (think Campbell Cup and Carnarvon Cup, but players drop in and out of the games and no one cares about the scores);
- weekend tournaments; and
- both singles leagues and pairs leagues.
And . . . the rinks are always available—24 hours a day, if you want.
Contact one of our coaches—Dolores Troyer, Harnam Grewal or John Cossom; they will arrange an introduction to the short mat game at a time that suits you.
Now that we have much more space to play, why not give short mat bowling a try?
