Season’s Greetings to All

I hope you have all had a peaceful and festive Christmas and enjoyed the time with your loved ones.
I wanted to provide you with an update whilst on the pennant break.

The Christmas Dinner saw a fantastic turnout with nearly 100 people enjoying the turkey and ham dinner as well as George Ds Christmas quiz. Thank you to all those who helped organise it.

The greens are closed until 2nd January 2024 as Gary T and his team have carried out some significant work and repairs to each green. A Green has been laser levelled and the others treated so they can continue to be the best greens around and great to play on.

The pennant season will start again on Wednesday 10th January and Night Owls will commence the same night.
Practice will recommence on Tuesday 9th January for the ladies. There will be training on Tuesday 9th for the whole club at 4.30pm as well as club practice on Friday 12th January at 4.30pm. Beau returns from his holidays on 19th which is when Beau’s Kitchen will resume.

We have had a fantastic start to the season with the top team winning all 10 Saturday games and all 9 Wednesday games which we believe is a club record. The second Saturday team are also top and we have most teams in the top four. The ladies are going well in the Premier League sitting sixth at the break and the second team in the top four. However, we know we can still improve so The Director of Bowls, Trevor White, and I have consulted with our Head Coach Brett to evaluate the training sessions with a view to making them a little different in the new year.

A panel of coaches led by Brett, together with Anthony Moffatt (State SA Coach) Seamus Curtin (NZ International and coach) and Trevor White (SA qualified coach) will organise purposeful training with key focus points for the remainder of the season.
Please speak to any of them if you would like coaching whether you are in the top, or middle or lower teams. They are available for all members and not many clubs can offer such experienced and dedicated coaches to improve your play.

Our Friday sessions will now commence at 4.30 pm in the Keelara room with information and tactical session for 20mins. This will allow discussion around reading of heads, effective bowls, cover shots, etc and we will use technology to assist. This will allow the social bowlers to finish and the other coaches to set up outside.

The training will be with a purpose and some sessions will be position-focused, for example A green for a Leads and seconds session and B green for 3rds and skips. Other sessions will be team focussed.
The Board want to make Brighton the Destination club that people want to come and join and are looking to bring in an international player and coach to run some masterclass sessions in the near future so watch out for the update.
We have had 27 new members join our club so far this season which sees our membership at its highest since 2019. We have over 50 teams playing Night Owls each week and a significant amount of people staying after training or games and club bookings are high. This has seen our bar takings increase by over $50000 in comparison to last season.
The Board has targetted sponsorship as a key growth area and has increased income by 50% with key partners signing multi-year agreements which will increase our financial stability and ability to improve the club for all its members. Jarvis Toyota has joined SAPS as Premium sponsors and will be our main sponsor for our Adelaide Cup Tournament.

David Dowling at our last board meeting presented a budget review which showed a healthy position with our bank balance increasing since the AGM.

As part of the promise to improve communication I will be circulating a half yearly report to keep you all kept informed and updated of how the club is performing rather than waiting for the annual report.
The Board is currently working to finalize its Strategic Plan, role statements and the Constitution review to align with SA Bowls and Bowls Australia.  Working with the Holdfast Council & RSL, the bathroom & locker room upgrade funding application is ongoing in addition to reviewing the contracts of our employees including Greenkeeper Gary T which expires in 2024.

It is encouranging to see the club developing & moving forward in such a positive direction.

Wishing you all the best for 2024.