PLAYING AT LAST

Today Oakley Bowling Club began its new season with the traditional Spoon Drive. Unusually this year the Drive was played in Club uniform/whites making it a more formal occasion, so members, after a year's absence, could celebrate a return to our green and also to honour our centurion Frank Tuffs, whose birthday, in February, could be shared with him only on Zoom.

Covid restrictions meant numbers on the green had at any one time to be resticted to a maximum of 24 players and timings were staggered in order to allow members to view the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. There were two sessions of two hours each, beginning at 11 am and 4.30 pm. The morning session, was conducted in warm sunshine with a little chill in the wind and began with a formal ceremony which saw members form a socially distanced tunnel, down which Frank, to applause, delivered the first bowl of the decade. It was then time for members to discover how a long lay off would affect their bowling skills. We hope the saying "Form is temporary, Class is permanent" will apply to all of us.