Only one month to go until opening day!

Work is ongoing to spruce up the club and the green so we will be ready to open on Saturday 16th April.

Any new members who commit to joining and have paid their membership fee on or prior to this date are welcome to attend the opening day of the green.

For anyone who is undecided whether bowling is for them, we will be running an open day/taster session on Sunday 17th April at 1pm which anyone can attend (we would however prefer to have prior notice of your intention to attend so that we can make sure that it isn't over subscribed and that we have enough spare equipment that we can lend out on the day). If you do intend coming along on the Sunday, please advise by email to secretary.seafieldbc@hotmail.com thank you.

AGM (6th March 1pm).

The AGM was held in the clubhouse at 1pm on Sunday.

A decent turnout and the revised constitution was adopted with only one amendment.

Opening day was confirmed as Saturday 16th April, with an 'open day' afternoon being held on Sunday 17th to allow people to come and give the game a try on our green.

The fees were agreed as the status quo for the coming season, so any new members will be offered to join for 50% of the full price again.

New season of EBA (and other competitions) awaits.

The draws for the new season league matches are now out, these will be posted on the club notice boards.

Along with these fixtures, a sheet will be posted to allow members to advise the weeks that they will be unavailable, which will make the job of the selectors a bit easier, please be sure to enter any dates that you cannot play.

Our ladies will open their first ever season in the Monday evening EBA league with a short trip to Willowbrae in the ladies division 2. On top of this, the ladies have also entered the Friday afternoon Forth League for the coming season, and also some East of Scotland competitions, so there should be plenty of opportunities for the ladies to play in external representative games for the first time in a few years.

Our gents start off with a home game to Juniper Green in division 4 of the gents league. Planned league reconstruction for the 2023 season makes it vitally important that we finish the season in a decent position as it looks like a flat structure will be implemented, with only one league of up to nine divisions being created from the current first and second XVI league formats.

With our ongoing recruitment drive, it is hoped that by next year we will be able to field another gents team on Wednesday evenings (preferably a XVI, but an VIII would be a step in the right direction). Also there will be a drive to encourage our members to participate in either the Edinburgh Cup (20 players) or Edinburgh Plate (12 players), both played in a straight knockout format on Friday evenings from next season.

Burns Supper evening.

This has been arranged for Friday 21st January. Under current Covid regulations we are limited to how many tickets we can sell for this event. Tickets are going fast so if anyone wants to request them, please do so as soon as possible as we expect them to sell out soon.

Update....

The evening was a great success! We are fairly sure that we will repeat this night next year and the tickets are likely to sell out if the response from this year was anything to go by.

Halloween party night

Our newly formed entertainments sub committee excelled themselves with their Halloween themed party night. Fancy dress was optional but many of those who attended went to great efforts with their costumes. A few of the costumes are shown below, however editorial judgement had to be used when deciding which costumes could be shown and which will forever only be indelibly burned into the memories of those who witnessed them and not inflicted on any poor unsuspecting souls (you know who you are!)... some of us will never be able to see a Baywatch swimsuit again without imagining a certain face replacing Pamela Andersons!

Vice President Micky did his best Tom Cruise impersonation (from the movie Cocktail - although he did not juggle with the bottles) to produce a constant stream of Margaritas which complimented our usual alcoholic offerings and has probably contributed to a not inconsiderable number of hangovers the following morning.

The food was exceptional, with some of the nicest chilli (both meat and vegetarian) tasted for many a long day.

The karaoke was also well used and for future events it is likely that the sales of noise cancelling earplugs will rocket.

Away day at Meadowmill indoor bowling

Latest news from on the green...

The semi finals of both the ladies and gents championships have been played and in the ladies, Eileen Aitchison will face off against Moira Gilbert (date and time still to be arranged).

In the gents competition Ian McGregor will play Billy Combe at 6:30 this Friday (30th July), we hope to see a decent turnout to spectate.

In the Covid affected 1st team league, the team topped our section and have been rewarded with a home tie tonight against Tanfield.

In the (shortened and unofficial) top 10, ourselves and Bainfield were awarded a bye into the second round and last night we saw off their strong challenge to progress to the quarter final stage. It was a tense game throughout, but Alistair Mckenna managed a 21-19 win in the singles which steadied the ship. In the pairs Tommy Thomson and Ian McGregor were always well behind but a score of four shots at the last end meant that they ended their game only one shot down. The triple of Micky McPherson, Kenny Maguire and Allan Nicol kept up the good form with a three shot win, which meant that the rink of Charles Duchart, Philip Lonie, Willie Bell and Stuart Gilbert, who were two up with one to play, could have afforded to lose a six at the last end and still progress. The last end was played out to ensure the bowls were well matched and there was little or no chance of Bainfield making the required score. Seafield have been rewarded with a tricky away tie to Craigentinny in the next round on Tuesday next week.

The next extravaganza will be ......

Flood Cup update...

Flood Cup 2021 - Saturday 17th July

The draws have been made and the following pairs will play off in each section -

Section A - First Game 10:30

B Peebles & N Clarke

E Aitchison & T Barclay

A Nicol & M Stout

W McGee & C Lloyd

Section B - First Game 10:30

A Lees & M MacDonald

A Knox & B Bathgate

W Bell & B MacDonald

L Burgess & M Gilbert

Section C - First Game 11:10

S Middleton & L Bryson

S Dodds & A Allan

S Gilbert & C Kean

R McKendrick & F Lloyd

Section D - First Game 11:10

G Kean & G MacDonald

K Bryson & I Paterson

I Mitchell & J Mulvey

N Scobie & D MacDonald

Any donations of raffle prizes are very welcome.

EBA Knockout Draws.

These have been made and the following ties will involve Seafield players.

Ladies (Thursday nights)

Singles 5th August 18:45 V Summerside @ Tanfield

Pairs 29th July 18:45 V Portobello @ Whitehouse & Grange

Triples 29th July 18:45 V Slateford @ Portobello

Gents (Thursday nights)

Singles 22nd July 18:45 V Portobello @ Lutton Place

Pairs 22nd July 18:45 V Lutton Place @ Whitehouse & Grange

Triples 29th July 18:45 V Portobello @ Blackhall

Rink 29th July 18:45 V Dean @ Blackhall

Seniors (Friday afternoons)

Singles 30th July 14:00 V Blackhall @ Leith

Pairs 6th August 14:00 V Corstorphine @ Ardmillan

Triples 30th July 14:00 V Mayfield @ Balerno

Rink 6th August 14:00 V Dean @ Braid

Mixed Rink (Sunday nights)

Rink 18th July 18:45 V Portobello @ Maitland

The club representatives for each of these games are still to be decided and the players will be notified as soon as we have it organised. Seafield will also be hosting ties, so we will be also looking for volunteer markers and umpires from time to time.

Latest Updates - 19/6/21

We are now half way through the sectional stages of the 2021 league season. The cut down triples format seems to be suiting the Seafield players as we are currently sitting at the top of our section with four big wins and only one narrow 5-4 defeat so far. The return fixtures begin on Wednesday when we travel to Trinity. Check out section 5 here - https://edinburghba.co.uk/1st-xvi-league/

Sunday afternoon at 2pm sees the start of this years top 5 campaign at Sighthill, good luck to our guys! ... any supporters would be most welcome.

The first round of the rink medal begins on Monday night with three ties due to start at 18:30. These ties will run alongside the Monday hat game so we hope to see a full green on the night.

Tuesday night at 18:45 sees the remaining two rearranged Fleming singles quarter final ties due to be played at Seafield. The previous two games were both played to exceptionally high standards and we believe that the participants were very happy with the condition and pace of our green.

Thursday sees our seniors play Leith in a local derby fixture. Unfortunately the league season for the seniors was dealt another blow when London Road Foundry decided that they could not raise a team for this campaign. Lets hope that after the Covid situation is over that we can return to a more normal bowling situation.

More EBA knockout competitions have now been drawn (check their website for details) and Seafield has a larger ladies contingent competing this season. I'm sure that anyone wishing to go along and support our representatives would be welcomed.

The club internal competitions are in full swing now and ties are coming up thick and fast. Please can all members keep an eye on the noticeboards to keep up to date with when the ties are due to be played.

Aerial views of the club.

Rain stops play.

What's behind the ribbon?

The Bar is now open !

Nearly ready to open the green!

The clubhouse has had a deep clean, the bar has been ripped out and replaced (this is almost complete but can't be used until Monday anyway), the green has been cut..... and we will be ready for play from Saturday 24th April!

A reminder to all our members new and old, that due to Covid regulations, this year we are still having to closely monitor and limit the numbers at the club and record attendance. As such, anyone wishing to play will need to book a timeslot with Steven Dodds or Stuart Gilbert so that we know we won't breach the current 15 person limit. Once this is increased to 30 people we hope that numbers attending won't be an issue but we will have to monitor the situation for a few days just to make sure. Anyone attending the club should remember to sign in at the door and use the hand sanitiser provided. While moving around inside the clubhouse a mask should be worn (may be removed if sitting down). Alcoholic drinks (from Monday) may be consumed outside the clubhouse but only soft drinks may be consumed inside where the social distancing rules are still tighter than they are outdoors. While playing, a maximum of triples is allowed on each rink and no scoreboards should be used or any equipment shared. A supply of mats and jacks will be supplied in the box just inside the front door of the club. Once your game is complete, any equipment used should be sanitised before being replaced in the box.

Green Opening 2021

Due to a combination of circumstances, the green will not be available for play until the 24th April this year. At that time, the government regulations will only allow a maximum of 15 people to be in the club area and green, so no formal "Opening day" activities will be held at that time and anyone wishing to play will need to book a slot with the Match Secretary (Steven Dodds, or Stuart Gilbert) so that we can manage how many people are in attendance at any time.

On Sunday 25th April we will be welcoming some visitors to the green, so no members will be able to book a rink on that afternoon, although the green will be available in the evening if anyone wishes to book a rink (maximum triples).

On the afternoon of Monday the 26th (as long as the government lockdown rules are relaxed as expected) we plan to have an opening of the new bar facilities, and the green will be available for play. By that time we hope to be allowed to have up to 30 people in attendance at once, although we will still have to comply with social distancing regulations and the clubhouse will only be available for toilet facilities and for retrieving bowls equipment from the locker rooms. Any socialising will still have to be done outdoors (we hope to have a couple of gazebos in situ to provide shelter from the baking sun/pouring rain). Until we have an idea of numbers attending, it will still be necessary to book in advance as we don't want to have to turn anyone away because we have too many people at the club.

Latest renovation updates (18th March 2021)

The inside of the clubhouse is a bit of a building site at the moment but we believe that we should have most, if not all, of the work complete by mid April in time for opening day.

Club renovation update

The central heating is now fully installed, as is the new heater in the hall.

The ladies toilets have been replaced with new close coupled units and we will be looking to repaint the walls in due course.

Behind the bar, the rewiring of all the sockets and new lighting circuit is almost complete. The ceiling will be coming down and be replaced with new plasterboard and a skim coat of plaster. The new fridges, glass washer, units and worktops have all been ordered and are either already on site or will be soon. The flooring behind the bar is also to be replaced. The old beer fonts have been removed and the brewery will replace these with more modern units once we are ready for them.

Once all of the work is complete we may be looking for some volunteers to take part in an action day to do some cleaning and snagging jobs around the clubhouse.. we will let the members know once we are ready for this.

Bar renovation update

Various layout and colour scheme options have been considered. New under counter fridges and a glass washer are included in the plans along with new units and worktops. New beer fonts are also being added. The changes are aimed at making the environment easier to move around and work in. Work has commenced in removing the old units. Pictures to follow once the work is complete.