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Dear members,

The weather last weekend helped towards making our first weekend with the bar open run very smoothly and after some fairly wet weather this week we are again hopeful of better weather this coming weekend.

We had a large society on Sunday who were extremely happy with the welcome and service that we provided, so much so that they have booked the same event next year. Societies of this size provide very welcome and material revenue for the club which benefits all members and, better still, some of these visitors took away application forms.

We will be arranging filled rolls again this weekend as it proved successful last weekend and these will be available in the pro shop, starters hut and bar.

One change to the procedures for ordering drinks for this weekend will be for members and visitors to place their drinks order with the team at the starters hut who will radio the orders up to the bar and the bar team will then deliver the drinks to the seating area – this arrangement reduces footfall within the club house and, as such, is far better than asking members/visitors to come up to the bar.

Alan Mawhinney generously arranged for the club house to be “fogged” last Friday which provides a higher level of protection by spraying a sanitising agent which reaches areas that may be difficult to clean with other techniques for which I am very grateful. Given the additional protection the club has invested in one of these fogging machine to improve the safety of all within the clubhouse. (“Fogging” video is on the website)

Work has started this week on the raised platform for the outdoor seating area with the project expected to be completed later in the month. Once completed this will be a real feature for the club and we are already looking towards other improvements to that area which could include a second practice net kindly funded by our Past Captain Steve Bradley and rethinking the chipping and putting greens.

To off-set the loss of parking spaces in the bottom car park we have been looking at how we could optimise the parking in the gravel and tarmac car parks. The current thinking is that there is a real opportunity to make better use of the gravel car park without significant alteration – removal of the central hedge would certainly help increase the available space but if we could achieve a near similar increase without losing the central hedge it would be far better and greener. To this end I have designed a parking format for the gravel car park for this weekend which I would appreciate members trialling which will entail only using the entrance near the bungalow for the gravel car park and also adopting a one way system. I have attached two pictures (below) to illustrate how the car parking will be organised and would ask the first arrival to park at 45 degrees to the roadside hedge in space number 1 by driving in through the entrance, straight ahead and all the way around the car park almost back to the entrance/exit to space 1. Similarly for the second arrival to space 2 etc etc. Once spaces 1 – 43 are full, picture 2 will apply where spaces 44 – 49 will come into use which should still allow a passage down by the central hedge. This arrangement will mean that the gap between the two lines of parked cars on the road side of the car park will be quite narrow but with cars parked at an angle to the hedges it should result in those parked being able to reverse out of their slots making exit easier but still following the one way system around the car park. Weather permitting, I will be painting lines on the gravel and fencing to make parking easier and the hope is that we will be able to fit more cars within the car park to reduce the overspill onto the road but it will only work if members embrace the proposed system but please regard this as a trial and let me know your thoughts and we will continue to review it and make changes.

I am hopeful that, as it is generally the same members that go out early at the weekend, we may be able to make it work but if not we may find that it is necessary to remove the central hedge and/or thin out the hedge by the road to create more space.

In the tarmac car park there are already lines painted for spaces around the sides and I would ask that members access the spaces to the back of the bowls and snooker rooms from the tarmac car park entrance and, when these spaces are filled four further spaces will be available in the roadway between the tarmac and gravel car parks which will mean that, once parked, there will be no transit possible between the two car parks but this should not be necessary and the benefit of four further spaces is worth the limitation.

There should be space down the middle of the tarmac car park for additional spaces and we will be painting lines but probably not for this weekend.

I will be in the bar on Saturday and Sunday and if there are cars parked on the main road, making exit difficult I will be happy to be an exit warden and I will be wandering around to see how the arrangements have worked, diagram in hand.

Best Wishes

Richard Coles

Chairman, Ramsey Golf and Bowls Club