24 Hour Bowls Marathon - 15th September 2019
The rain came down. It hailed, gales force winds blew, the green was flooded, the ditches filled with water and mud, the walkways and paths were covered in an inch of brown sludge. Welcome to Sunny Spain in September..
When we decided to hold a 24 hour Bowls Marathon we had so many dates to choiose from. September, we thought, would be a little cooler, a little kinder to those putting themselves through the gruelling ordeal. Little did we know the worst storm in the last 30 years would descend upon us to make life just a smidgin more difficult. The hailstones - literally the size of grapefruit - did the worst damage, punching holes in dustbins, buckets, shades and sales and leaving thousands of pockmarked indentations in the green itself.
Fortunately we are a resourceful and hardworking bunnch and once the deluge finally stopped we got to work on the clean up. Pumps and brushes, hoses and shovels and sheer determination and hard work had the place serviceable and the Marathon back on track with only a 24 hour delay. Well done to everyone who pitched in to help.
The idea of a Bowls Marathon was the brainchild of Jane Richardson, our enthusiastic Social Secretary (and later Club Secretary too) more than a year or so. It just needed something to galvanise us into agtion to get it off the ground. The trigger came with the news of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Jan Atak For More Information Go Here and we decided helping her would be the focus of our endeavours.
The concept is a fairly simple one. A squad of 6 bowlers would bowl for 24 hours, in a series of 2 hour matches, against whoever we could entice to play against us. Participants didn't need any experience - training would be given - and we hoped we would attract bowlers, members of other Bowls Clubs and local residents.
In practice we had quite a few things to sort out. We had no floodlights. How could we see to bowl during the hours of darkness? Enterprising Club members - we have electricians, builders, welders and a whole host of other talented, experienced people within our membership - so we rigged up a series of temporary floodlights along the roof edges of our various buildings, even more temporary lighting towers to run along the opposite edge of a temporary rink that we set up just for the night bowling. It wasn't perfect but it proved adequate and added a surreal atmosphere to those games played under their influence.
With the help of sponsors and well-wishers we set up various stalls with handicfrafts and baked goods, services and information, with proceeds going to the Appeal.
We set up different fun bowling games to let people get a taste of the sport and try their hand at various skills needed to play it. We arranged fun challenges and refreshments.
Then it rained. Initial despair turned to determination and we hastily postponed every from Saturday to Sunday. Unfortunately we had to cancel some of our plans, run around trying to find replacements for people who could no longer take their place in the challenging teams and hope for the best. Stalls, sponsors and visitors alike were missed.
At 12 noon Golf Club Manager, Carlos Santos, played the first bowl to get the Marathon underway in glorious sunshine.
24 hours later, tired but happy the final bowl was played. The Marathon team had lost 1, drawn 1 and won 10 games. Special thanks to Mijas Bowls Club who provided a team during the early hours of Monday morning and to all those golfers and non-bowlers who turned up, tried their hand at the sport and had a great time doing it.
The final total raised was 2,300€, exceeding expectations, and once again many thanks to all those who raised sponsorship to help us reach this figure.