| Where is it at? | James North Memorial Bowling Club - Booth St, Off Lumn Road, Hyde, Cheshire SK14 5PX |  |
|
| When is it held? | 2nd Sunday in September, every year at 12 Noon | ||
| Who's Playing? | Mermaid´s Men Versus Smarty´s Barmy Army | ||
| Who can I contact? | Michelle Conway (Little Mermaid) michelle.conway@ntlworld.com | Brian Smart (Smarty) 0161 368 5210 07983 632 019 webmaster@jnmbc.co.uk |
|
| Which Charity? | The charities set to benefit from this event are chosen each year by the team captains. | ||
| How Much? | The cost of entry for this event is a minimum of £5.00 per player. No Maximum! | ||
| This Year's Cause |
Every year an estimated 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke. That's one person every five minutes. Most people affected are over 65, but anyone can have a stroke, including children and even babies. Stroke changes lives. It can have a huge effect on you and your family. You will most likely want to know as much as you can about what practical, emotional and financial support is available. The Stroke Association can help you to understand what you can expect to happen when you have had a stroke, from emergency care to beginning your rehabilitation and recovery and returning to life after stroke. |
||
| Why The Stroke Association? | 14th March 2012 is a date that will haunt me forever! My wife Karen went to bed at 10pm the night before perfectly well and went off to sleep looking forward to another day of hard work at her beloved sandwich shop that is her pride and joy. At 2 am, our household was in complete turmoil as Karen had fallen out of bed after suffering a massive stroke. She was rushed to Salford Royal Hospital and underwent a series of CT scans to determine the severity of the stroke. Brain damage was inevitable but they were concerned with the building pressure. If the pressure got too great, their only option would be to operate in order to save her life. The next two days were critical, she was totally paralysed on her right side, she had lost the power of speech, her throat was paralysed, she had memory problems and very little understanding of the world around her. Furthermore, she was still in great danger of having another stroke. Once out of immediate danger, 3 full days, she had some speech back, some memory had returned and she had been able to swallow without choking. She was transferred to Tameside General to undergo 5 weeks of rehab involving speech, physio and cognitive (Brain training) therapy. Bringing her home on the 18th April was a very emotional but happy day, Even for our dog Taz. See Video This picture of Karen was taken 5 months after she suffered this stroke and thankfully she is speaking perfectly well, her long term memory is better than mine and she is spending less and less time in her wheelchair and more and more time learning to walk again. It may be 5 months but as I write this piece, I still cannot believe it has happened, it just won't sink in. It was just 1 week before her 48th birthday! Our lives have been shattered by this event and words cannot describe the absolute fear, anxiety, emotion and heartbreak that a stroke can bring. I don't want anyone to go through this so I want to do everything I can to encourage people to understand the risks.
Thanks to the Stroke Association and their TV adverts, I knew exactly what to do and will be forever grateful to them. Many of us have seen the F.A.S.T. adverts on TV warning of the signs of a stroke and knowing how to recognise those signs and what action to take. F.A.S.T. stands for Face, Arms, Speech, Time to dial 999. Thanks to those adverts, I knew without hesitation to dial 999 and get an ambulance. Of course, the Stroke Association are more than just a TV advert and this year, they will have their volunteers at the match to help us all understand stroke and how we can minimize the risk to ourselves and avoid the hell that Karen and our family going through. It's ironic that I was actually developing this charity match web page on the evening of 13th March and at that point had not made my mind up which charity I would be supporting this year. My mind was very quickly made up for me although organising the event was the least of my concerns for the 5 weeks that Karen spent in hospital. On the day, there will be free blood pressure testing and advice from the Stroke Association staff along with leaflets and booklets designed to raise the awareness to the risks. Please show your support for this event and please take advantage of the wealth of information and advice that will be available. Michelle Conway, the original organiser and supporter of the charity match event has kindly given her blessing to donate the entire proceeds this year to the Stroke Association instead of splitting it between two. Thank you Michelle |
||
The event is a competitve but fun based Crown Green Bowls match between Mermaid's Men and Smarty's Barmy Army. Each team will consist of 12-15 players and 4 or 5 games will be played at a time. Bowlers and non-bowlers alike are welcome to join in once the main match is over and there will be other events throughout the day including football cards, raffles and "Smarty's Pedometer Challenge", all of which will provide the winner with prizes and the charities with more funds. All bowlers to pay a minimum of £5.00 entry fee
After the success of the 2011 event, we couldn't not do it again. Furthemore, we decided that we would set it stone to be held on the 2nd Sunday in September, every year!
Light refreshments will be available throughout the day along with hot and cold drinks.
Your support for this event would be greatly appreciated and if you would like to help in any way then please contact Brian Smart using the details at the bottom of this page.
If you have a business in the Tameside area, especially Hyde, and you would like help then please also contact Brian. If you desire, your company logo could appear on this page
We are very grateful to Perrigo Sports of Droylsden - They have been instrumental in the success of this event and kindly provide the winners trophy and raffle prizes.
Here is a summary of who Perrigo are and why they chose to work with us
Emerging in the late 19th century as wooden dart and dartboard manufacturers, H.Perrigo offers 5 generations of experience in the Darts business.
Perrigo developed the Manchester Log-End and ManLon dartboards and helped spearhead the development of brass darts and later the tungsten revolution.
After more than 100 years of serving the darts community, Perrigo took their services global with the launch, in 1996, of their darts specialist web site 9Dart.com. This proved so successful that our customer base extended to over 130 countries and the foundation of business partnerships in Europe, North America and the Far East.
Our retail darts shop is arguably the oldest established specialist darts shop in the world. We are pleased to provide a top service to our customers, be they total novices or Professional Darts World Champions (we can count five amongst the list of the darting elite). Customers are most welcome to browse our full range of darts equipment, we have thousands of accessories to choose from, as well as a full wall of dartboards and hundreds of sets of darts ready to try out in our dart practice area. A dart re-pointing service is available on site. Our staff have years of experience in the game and have helped thousands of dart players find their ideal sets and are always happy to help with darts equipment and technical advice.
Since moving to our current premises in 2003, we have expanded our product range to include a selection of quality Pool and Snooker Cues and accessories for all club and pub playing needs.
Our bowls section is currently dedicated to Taylor Bowls products and we can provide everything from clothing, bowls bags, grip aids, polishes and both flat and crown green bowls. We support various clubs and competitions throughout the area and are always on hand to help promote the game.
Perrigo’s also offers a choice of quality playing cards, cribbage boards and a range of fund raising products, from Football Name scratch cards to Bingo tickets and electronic machines.
To complete our services, we also offer customers a full trophy range to suit all budgets. We have a selection of sports awards, cups and medals on display and have a free brochure available, which offers thousands of items to choose from. We provide an in house engraving service and specialise in both metal and glass engraving.
Nigel from Periggo comments, "We first became aware of bowls in the area via the James North Memorial Bowling Club web site. The site promoted the game in a dynamic and pro active manner. The belief in putting the game first appealed to us and after speaking with the JNMBC stalwart Brian Smart, we decided to commit ourselves to support competitions and leagues, where we could. As a consequence, we at Perrigo are very happy to sponsor the two fantastic ‘bookend’ tournaments."
Although Michelle Conway has successfully organised charity bowls matches for many years, 2011 was the first time the match was based around the message boards of this website and that of the Stockport Bowls website developed by Michelle's husband Pete.
In 2011, the total fund raised on the day was just short of £500 and the worthwhile charities selected to recieve 50% each were When You Wish Upon a Star and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
When You Wish Upon a Star was particularly relevant to the members of North's bowling club because we had had the pleasure of watching one of our Junior members, Dominic Scanlon take up bowling with his Grandma Rhona. Sadly Dominic passed away but not before When you wish upon a star had helped him realize some of his dreams.
Michelle didn't have to think long about her choice of charity either. Michelle's dad had been under the care of Christies Hospital for treatment for cancer and with the help and dedication from the nurses and staff at the hospital, he was able to enjoy the 2011 event with the rest of us. Here is what Michelle has to say on the subject.
"The charity game is a real passion of mine, seeing how it's developed from struggling to get 10 a side together to the 18+aside that it was last year really is just great to see, something that never ceases to amaze me is how generous people are with their time and money, even when it's for charities that they maybe know not that much about. In the first few years, we gave the money to St Annes Hospice, which I've had some dealings with as my Grandad had spent a lot of his later life in there giving my Nanna some restbite, but it all changed for me last year after my dad was diagnosed with cancer, having seen the work Christies do from the specialists, nurses, the radiographer, the guy who brought my dad his dinner everyday, the old ladies doing the tea in the cafe considering what everyone must deal with on a daily basis I couldn't believe what a positive place it was, and for little old me to have the chance to give something back for the great care they gave my dad it made the event last year even more important. Talking of my dad, he's doing great he'll need check ups for a good while and always have to be careful in the sun but the prognosis is rosie, which is just as well as he's just celebrated his 65th birthday and his retirment..... so my hopes for the charity game this year is, well to win it first of all I may have to call in some big guns, but just for it to be a continued succsess and for everyones continued support, because for those who do take part I really can't thank them enough "
A letter of thanks was received from The Christies NHS Foundation Trust
It just remains to announce now who the winners of the 2011 event were. Well of course it was Smarty's Barmy Army!!!! The proof can be seen in our makeshift scoresheet on the left. We will have a proper one for 2012! Victory on the day came twice as it happens because after we had won the match, Mermaid excersised her right to play her joker and challenge the winners to a further mini-match of tripples only to fall short of victory once again.
I strongly suspect that Mermaid will be fielding the countries top bowlers for the next one. Meanwhile, here are some more images from 2011
