The Rotary Club of Turton

The social side of the Rotary year got off to a great start with the Presidents barb-b-que held at Eric and Pat O’Neil’s house on the 18th July. In the halcyon days of June when the sun was turning the grass brown and temperatures were in the thirties it seemed a good idea to kick off the Rotary New Year in style with a charity barb-b-que, and this was arranged for Sunday 18th July.

Following a very wet few days beforehand the rain never stopped on Sunday morning. However, thanks to the big fella up in the sky, the rain stopped and the skies cleared just as the barb-b-que was starting. 54 Rotarians, partners and guests attended the event and an enjoyable time was had by all.

My thanks go to Eric and Pat for the loan of their garden and for all their hard work along with David and Irene Howarth in organising the event. A special thanks to the celebrity chef Brian Evans who single handed stoically manned the bar-b-que all afternoon, except for a little nudging from Hilary and some assistance from Flat Cap.

As ever, Billy Fairclough did his part and raised a few pounds with two raffles. The event raised a total of £406.00 which will be donated to the Thanks for Life programme for the worldwide eradication of Polio.

Thanks to Jeff Hibbert & David Howarth for the photographs.

After last years event for members only, it was decided to open this years event to friends and family. 15 entrants for the golf and 30 for the meal and presentation was an improvement on last year but we had anticipated more.

Weeks of beautiful weather in May and June presented Turton Golf Club in its driest condition for years and we were looking forward to slapping on the sun cream and watching the Titleists and Srixons bouncing off into the distance. Surprise, surprise ! We teed off into driving wind and rain and had to don waterproofs. We even abandoned the “Longest Drive” prize on the 13th hole as the drive was into the teeth of the wind and on that tee the only obstacle to the wind between Turton and New York is Winter Hill – enough said !

Dave Biggar and his sons Brendan and Nicholas went off first, in a jovial mood. On approaching the 4th tee they decided to take their drives a little more serious as on this hole there was a prize for “Nearest the Pin”. Seriousness and a strong wind were not a good combination and only Nicholas landed on the green but at the farthest possible point from the flag. More in humour than hope they measured the putt at 43 ft 6 inches and continued their round assuming that it would be easily beaten.

The weather improved and surprisingly good scores were recorded considering the conditions. The spread of scores, in a full handicap (max 24) Stableford, came in between 30 and 40 and we all looked forward to being joined by our families and friends for the food and presentation.

Needless to say, the food was consumed with ease and the prizes were to be presented by our President, Jeff Hibbert. 3rd and 4th prizes were decided on a card play-off as both had scored 34 points. Rotarian Colin Roberts narrowly beat Rotarian Brian Evans (Captain of Turton Golf Club) with a slightly better back nine. Second prize, with a score of 36 points went to last years winner, Lynn Evans who also picked up the prize for “Nearest the Pin” on the 2nd having landed the ball only 3ft from the flag. This years overall winner, with a score of 40 points, was Nicholas Biggar. Despite his assurances that he hadn’t played since last August he had to endure the “Bandit” jibes, particularly from his father and brother. Incidentally, he was the only one to score a “two” on the 15th hole and picked up that prize as well.

Oh ! and the “Nearest the Pin” prize on the 4th? Well, the 43ft was beaten by a whole 4 ft leaving our President, Jeff with a 39ft putt and the prize.

Thanks to Jeff Hibbert for the photographs.

On 28th June, the Club held its annual bowls evening at Barr Lane Bowling Club.There were 23 members and wives ready for the competition. After nearly twelve weeks of unbroken dry warm weather, the round robin competition took place against a background of intermittent rain showers which fortunately did not detract from the enjoyment of the bowlers or the quality of the bowling.

After a thoroughly enjoyable potato pie and mushy peas supper, President Jeff presented The Ron Bickerstaffe Trophies to the winners Susie Roberts and Alan Smith with minature malt whiskies awarded to the runners up Jim Smith and Billy Fairclough. A good time was had by all!

Thanks to Eric O’Neil for the photographs.

On the 13th June 2010 the club held the famous annual duck race! Full details can be found here!

This year’s Duck Race was once again a great success raising almost £12,000 which will be distributed to over 50 local charities and good causes as well as adding to our own charity funds. The club also donated an extra 10% of the amount’s raised by the charities and groups.

The event was held at Bradshaw Brook in Bradshaw on Sunday 13th June with well over 250 supporters there to cheer the ducks down the brook. It is good to see that the event is something that so many local people like to come and enjoy-almost ritualistic. Once again as well as the main Duck Race we held a Kids Race, which was won by Mia Hurst, with 140 kids taking part!

As a regular charity event we were privileged to have the continuing help of local business sponsors, who we would like to thank for their support-in particular our main sponsor Renault and Nissan of Bolton.

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The visit to the Bolton Steam Museum on 24th May was the final trip organised by the Vocational Committee for the Rotary Year ending June 2010. A party of 22 Rotarians, wives and friends were given a guided tour of the museum by press officer and retired schoolteacher David Lewis.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers from the Northern Mill Engine Society and receives no financial support although very recently the museum has been officially accredited by the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council putting it on a similar footing to the British Museum in terms of how it cares for its documents and collections, how it is managed and on the information and services it provides.

With 25 historic mill engines preserved in working condition the steam museum has been a Mecca for steam enthusiasts! On this private visit it was too expensive to operate the machines by steam but a number of the machines were operated by electricity allowing David Lewis to give excellent descriptions of working parts.

The museum is only open to the public for a few days a year but the society is hoping to gradually increase the opening hours if applications for grants are successful. A question and answer session at the end of the tour confirmed the interest shown by everybody and David Lewis was thanked for giving up his time.

Thanks to Jeff Hibbert for taking photographs.