It might not be the rugby season at the moment but the Tilehouse Lane club does not rest as there is much going on.
Friday evening saw the annual dads and lads camping night. There was a rumour that the lads had to keep an eye on the dads rather than the other way round. However, we all know that our club treasurer can hold his ale but the old saying goes, 'there's no smoke without fire'
Natwest Bank are very generous sponsors of rugby and the idea is that if clubs can show a plan to enhance their club facilities then Natwest will foot the bill or most of it up to a certain limit. With an impressive number of our players showing up to help, the experienced Steve Price allocating the tasks, the club President living up tp his name, had more paint on his face and shirt than on the wall. A much needed improvement saw the area between the top gates and the kitchen wall fenced off so that visitors don't need to see the bottle bank, skips full of trash etc. The carrot being dangled for those who came along was in the form of refreshments and I believe the lads had a good day.
Australian Rules Football.
We played host to the Aussie Rules teams of Birmingham and their opponents from just up the road, Huddersfield. Having watched them for a good twenty minutes I must confess a lack of understanding of these 'Rules'. I asked the young lady who seemed to be keeping the score what was going on. She replied that she was from Swansea but she thought that Huddersfield would win.
Archery
Most of us feel good when we give to a charity and if we get something back for our money then it's even better. With help from our local archery club, The Solihull Archers, who generously provided the equipment and tuition at a greatly reduced rate, it was my hope to attract an optimum number of volunteer archers of twenty. However, the response was a staggering sixty which meant three sessions rather than one. For an hour of tuition and a mini competition followed by a feast of fish and chips and a social drink in the club afterwards, the consensus was that a tenner was very good value. A special mention for the management of Shirley Station Chip Shop, for the quality of the food and that they were delivered to the door still piping hot. Brilliant. If any of you would like to have a go at archery, get in touch with me, Dave Adams, and we will see what we can do. An observation, there was one portion of food too many so I saw Peter (Fridge) and asked him to go out onto the patio and to share them out. I suspect you can guess the outcome. I would like to thank all of the people who helped make the project successful. The charity, 'Parkinsons' U.K. will be receiving a cheque this week.