Anytime now the Woolton Swallows will arrive

Just waiting to see my first Woolton Swallow of the Summer.
Last year the first one I saw was 10th May, might beat that this year, especially if we get Southerly winds.
The trees in the Duck pond have come out and are showing a nice fresh green colour - there'll be conkers on them before you know it!!

It's been a while - but I'm back

Yup the last post was 2010 and a lot has happened in Woolton, and the Village Club since then or has it?
Just to summarise:
The 'Orchard' (the copse on the left side of Church Rd South as you go towards High St) has been sold.
Woolton Village Club has had the money from the sale.
The developer who bought the land is going to build flats with an underground car park for flat owners.
The developer has (I believe) obtained planning permission.
There has been protests about environmental issues regarding the land sale (cutting down of tres, disruption to wildlife etc).
A member of the Committee has been axed from the club because of  helping to organise the protests.
Significant improvements to the interior of Woolton Village Club are planned.
I've heard that Woolton baths are to be reopened.
'Beatle Tourists' continue to visit on their new cool Beatle Bus.

Winter In Woolton

Some shots after the Jan 5th snowfall

The 'Orchard' development-Cyril may lose his nuts!

A motion detailing plans for usage of the 'Orhard' owned by Woolton Village Club(WVC) achieved the two-thirds majority required at a recent AGM.

The Orhard is a a sizable area of land in between Barclays Bank and St James' Church Hall on Church Road South.

Currently the land contains some 20 or so trees and is heavily overgrown.

The propasal is that the land be cleared and WVC (in conjunction with developers) will erect 3 to 4 'units' on the land.

There is no planning permission on the land at the momment, but WVC and their partners will be seeking permission to build retail and or residential units on the land.

The members of WVC own the Club and therefore own the land, but they will not be selling the land to developers.

The land will remain under the title of WVC, and also the developers, as a return for WVC allowing them use of the land, will build WVC a number of units (the number of which will be determined by the value of the land).

Although the motion was passed a few members voiced enviromental concerns regarding the removal of trees and wildlife habitat.

This is a significant development for the Club and should help to secure much needed cash flow income streams (in the form of rent from tenants) for the future.
The beauty of this scheme is that:-
1.It will cost the Club nothing to develop the land
2.The Club do NOT sell the land-it will remain on Club books for future generations
3.Rental income received each year
4.Commercial value of the Club and it's property should increase-and therefore the value of each members stake in the Club should increase.

Most of this article was originally posted on Woolton.net

Cyril looks for his nuts

It's official-this has been a mild winter.
Apparently squirrels partially hibernate, and will come out during mild spells, even during mid winter.
Well I can confirm this, cos Cyril the Squirrel has been spotted and it's only mid January.
This time he was spotted looking for his nuts near the bowling green.
There was no nuts in his bowl...nightmare!
Have no fear, a kind lady member of staff was dispatched to Sainsbury's and his nut bowl was refilled.
There's nothing worse than waking up and finding your nuts have gone.

Tell us what you like or don't like

A guy comes into the club the other day to renew his 2008 membership. He duly pays his £12 (yes it's gone up £2-first rise for about 5 years!) and then says
'Thanks, can you tell me where the toilets are?'
.....and this is the problem we have.
Approximately 1400 members, where the hell are they all year?
WE NEED YOU PEOPLE TO COME AND PUT BUMS ON SEATS ON A REGULAR BASIS!
We can't survive financially if the members don't come and use the facilities, spend money over the bar etc etc.
So why don't you come?
We need to know what you LIKE or more to the point, what you DISLIKE about the club.
Once we find out what you hate-we can put it right (or try to).
If any of these 'ghost' members are reading this, please tell us why you don't come to the club very often.
Just click on the heading of this article, then scroll down to click 'Post a comment'
That would be much appreciated-ta

Carol foils crafty Magpie

Cyril the squirrel has been busy (I know Cyril is male 'cos I've seen him burying his nuts).
This is the time of year when any self respecting squirrel starts to bury nuts for the winter.
It's also the time of year when the bowling green is prepared for the winter months.
It has to be spiked with holes, about 1 inch deep, then dressed with some sort of sand based stuff.
Anyway, Cyril is an enteprising chap, why spend time and effort digging a hole to bury your nuts, when the bowling green has several hundred fresh holes for you to drop your nuts in.
That's what Cyril did! Not soft our Cyril.
However, there was beady eyes watching him from aloft, and there was beady eyes watching the beady eyes.
After the nuts were buried down popped at Magpie and started stealing Cyrils nuts.
Luckily, Carol (one of the WVC staff) had seen this and promptly salvaged Cyril's remaining nuts from the holes, and put them in Cyril's nut bowl.
Yeeess....Cyril 1 Magpie 0......and well done Carol!
David Attenborough.....eat your heart out.

Croats cost

Good crowd in the club last week for the England Croatia European Championship Qualifier.
Fantastic atmosphere as England got back from 2-0 down to draw level, everyone was really getting behind England and then........ouch 2-3, and we are out.
Everyone on a downer, except maybe the Jocks.
As that third Croat goal hit the back of the net, I thought (and this is sad)' My God that goal has just cost this club thousands of pounds in lost takings' (told you it was sad).
Not just our club, but hundreds of thousands of pubs and clubs in England.
No beer fuelled Summer afternoons or evenings watching England trying in vain to progress in a major tournament.
No flags of St George everywhere.
No John Motson wetting himself as England cross the halfway line.
No swearing at an inept England manager and pampered stars.
No getting to the club early to get a good seat to watch the match.
No goading kopites as Crouch misses another sitter.
No increase in bar takings.
Oh God, I'm depressing myself now-what the hell are we going to do???

Adding comments

Someone asked me how to add a comment to this blog.
Just click on the heading of the article you want to comment on-in this case click on the 'Adding comments' at the top of this article.
Then you will see in light blue 'Post a comment' below the article.Click post a comment and you're in!
You can do that on any article.

Woolton .net

Its about time Woolton had it's own proper web site.
Local news, Forum where you can have a rant (eg about the chronic lack of parking space in the village, or why are there so many 86's and 79's but try and get a 78 from town after 5.30pm-no chance. I could go on)
There is even a page reserved for the Village club where someone can publicise upcoming events.One of my pet moans in the WVS is poor marketing of events.
Like the Halloween disco, which the Secretary (Sharon) had put a lot of work in on, but we hadn't advertised it enough.
Actually the disco was brilliant-quality music from 60's and 70's.
The smoking ban has hit us and every club in the UK, as has Tesco's and co selling off cans of lager at less than 50p.How can pubs and clubs compete with those prices?
We have to put on more events to attract our members.

Bowling Section

To conclude the post below about maintenace of the green-the bowls section agreed to contribute a sum to help with the upkeep of the green-result!
Incidentally, the visit by Ilkley Club the other Sunday was a great success-they did their their County proud-both on the green and off!!

Smoking Ban

From July 1st 2007 smoking in public places was banned in the U.K.
We are lucky in WVC because we have a large open area at the rear-the bowling green.
Also an outside seating area and veranda, where smokers can get their fix.
Fantastic in the Summer, but I reckon we should be looking at outside heaters come winter.
I'm under the impression that the ban has not had a massive effect on takings, up or down.
I was talking to a member of one of the groups on Audition Night, and he said that he had noticed a drop in bookings since the ban came in, and others had noticed the same.

Audition Night

Every now again we have an Audition night, usually on a Monday night.
Our Entertainments Secretary gets together with the Agents we use (whose name escapes me-maybe someone can post the name so I can give them a plug), and the Agents come a look at a few acts, with a view to booking them.
We had such a night the other Monday, 6 Acts all musical- and I tell you what-they were all brilliant.
Two guys sung the 'Swing' style stuff (you know-Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra stuff), one guy on a guitar, whose vocal range had to be heard to be believed, and 3 boy-girl groups-all excellent and very professional.
I can definitely recommend these nights-so next time we have one-get along, you get decent quality acts for FREE!!!(for members)

Wow-Blog causes uproar-free speech threatened?

Hi everyone-I haven't updated this blog for nearly a year (because of developing php stuff and other things).
I've just been to a Committee meeting (late because my car wouldn't start and had to wait an hour for AA). There were serious faces, and copies of this blogg handed to out to Committe members.
Basically I was asked to remove this blogg because it was 'showing the Club in a bad light' and that I shouldn't use the Clubs name in the blogg.
OK they came up with a couple of points that may have been valid-and I appreciate that and have edited the relevant bits.
One guy even tore up the blogg in disgust, which is good-the power of the written word stirring up emotions.
Even though I explained that this blogg was my own private opinions, not an official Website of Woolton Village Club-they still want it off the air!
As a fierce advocate of freedom of speech-NO CHANCE.
Funnily enough two members stopped me in Tesco on Sunday (the day before all this blew up) and asked me to update it regularly as they liked it!
Which is wierd-because noone has looked at it for a year-and now, in 2 days, all this attention!!
So I will update-but not right now cos it's nearly midnight-and I'm knackered!

Death of Comedian

Have you ever seen a comedian die on stage?........not a pretty sight I can tell you.
I remember one Saturday night (we have live entertainment on Saturdays) this comedian came on stage to do his turn.
Now one thing the normally subduded Woolton Gentlefolk hate with a 'turn'.......is swearing (and Acts are warned about this before they come on)
Anyway this was his opening line.......
'I shouldn't really be here tonight, I lost the wife during the week.........
(Audience go quiet, some look down in respect)
'What a f***ing card game that was'
Now I must admit, I laughed- I still think it's funny.I then got daggers of looks for laughing-I knew what was going to happen.
The Comedian, blissfully unaware of the crime he had commited, went on to his next joke........silence........next joke.......silence........next joke........not even a polite titter.
Death.
'Alright' he said 'I don't know who's more p*ssed off. Me looking at you or you looking at me'-and stormed off the stage, never to be seen again.
Future comedians booked for Woolton Village Club-take note!!

Happy Hour or No Happy Hour?

.....another death defying decision to make by the Committee.
As I have said previously, we are always struggling for cash and have taken some cost saving exercises this year.
One of which was abolishing the 'Happy Hour' (actually it was a happy 7 hours!)
The happy hour is a period of time during which we charge lower prices for drinks than normal to attract custom. The hours used to be between 12am and 7pm.
What actually happened was that we got about 6 people in during the afternoon and they would spend about £5.50 between them, and we have to pay bar staff-not a good idea when the club is hard up!
So we axed it!........and it has worked, financially (mainly because we are now charging full prices during the weekend when the football is on the big screens).
However members have been complaining, and our competitors-The Woolton British Legion-have responded by making their prices lower than ours during the afternoon, and I know we are losing custom to the British Legion.
We said we would review the happy hour situation after Dec 31 this year-personally I think it should remain axed, but I am just one vote on the Committee-which way will it go?......can you bear the tension?

Battle of the Bowls

An issue that has arisen this year is the Bowling Green!
WVC has quite a large bowling green at the back-which looks fantastic in the Summer, when the hanging baskets are in full bloom.
You can sit around the green or on the veranda overlooking the green and enjoy a nice drink.
However the green needs to be maintained, this costs money, about £3000 per year (greenkeepers wages, fertiliser etc).
WVC are in bowling leagues and visiting teams come once or twice per week-then they go home.
That's the problem, they go home, they go directly home, they do not pass bar, and we don't collect any revenue from bar sales.In fact using the green is free, so we don't collect any revenue from bowls full stop.
Now we have 2 snooker tables and they bring in more income than the bowls- with no maintenance-you can see the problem-we need cash off the Bowling people (and there's only about 30 of them).
We got representives of the bowling committee in front of the management committee and told them the score.Obviously they weren't too happy about stumping up-so we gave them a compromise.
Bowls section to hold 2 fund raising events in our rooms (free of charge), we take £200 off each one and they keep any surplus.
The bowling section said they would put it before their committee-we await the outcome.

Bottle Bingo

The Bottle Bingo was held last night, this is always held around Christmas and we give 1 bottle of wine and one bottle of spirit (usually Scotch), to winners plus cash.
Nice to see the place full! We are desparate for bums on seats.The Bingo crowd are 80% pensioners and most of them are regulars.However I did notice a lot of non-regulars (the prospect of free booze entices them out once a year).
Incidentally what you've heard about 'Club Culture' is true.Woe betide you if you accidentally sit in a seat of a bingo regular.....and if you wrongly call a line or full house.......just get out of there.....fast!
Tonight (Wednesday) is quiz night.

Kids Christmas Party

On Saturday 10th December we held the dreaded Christmas party for member's children.
The age range is 4 to 9, this takes some organisation, I can tell you.
The kids each get one big present (and I mean big-some of the smaller ones couldn't carry the present), 2 selection boxes and some fruit.
Tickets are limited, so there is always a scramble and moans from members who weren't able to get one.
This year we had about 40 kids there, each present has to be wrapped-this year it was Gayle, Lucy and the bar staff who did the sterling work.
We needed a 'Father Christmas' to give the presents out-and no one would volunteer.
Stupidly I volunteered-the first little boy (about 4 or 5yrs)near yanked my beard off-it was bloody hot in that costume.
I'd like to thank Frieda who did a magnificent job in making the event a great success.

Committee

At the start of the year there were 12 members of the Mangement Committee ( I think)-but this has dwindled down to effectively 8 or 9.
Anyway the Chairman is Ken-one of those guys who are unsung heroes, the Secretary is Sharon and the Treasurer is John.