George the organiser.

I remember the time when I foolishly(with hindsight)volunteered to organise the works Pool & Darts competitions for the Merlin Sports & Social Club. Both competitions had been running reasonably successful for years. Then suddenly all interest faded and the competitions were dropped for a couple of years. The main reason for the lack of interest was the change in shift patterns and no trophy of any kind awarded to the winners.

Volunteers were needed for the new committee and for some weird reason, I put me name forward. During the first meeting the question of who wanted to organise the pool and darts competitions was raised. Out of the mixture of ten different sized noses, it was my nose with the large nostrils that twitched alone. Thus my two year stint as an entertainments organiser began in haste!

I had to barter hard to get the prizes I wanted for the two competitions. The Sports & Social Club treasury was over flowing with money that was supposed to be spent on its members, but apart from the Christmas party, there was nothing else! In the end I had to settle for A small cup for the winners with a cash prize of £25, the runner up received £15, with the two losing semi finalists getting a fiver each. The number of willing participants was well over 40 for each competition. Sadly it was unworkable to have a doubles competition in both games because of the different shift patterns. I gave one month for each best of 3 knock - out round with the onus on the home player to organise the game and fill in the results.

Everything flowed like a gentle river until the Finals Night. I had laid on free food and concessions for the first two drinks for each of the semi finalists. I had liaised with Geoff the Club manager for the first Saturday night in December of that year, 1994. Hahaha, two of the players had forgotten to tell me that they had other pub team finals to attend, so they couldn't come to the one I had organised! I was livid. With just one week to go, I had to cancel the finals night until the week after and on a Sunday.

In the end, a good turn out ensued that a good night was had by all and you should have seen the smiling faces of the winners when they got their trophies, which were presented to them by the Managing Director no less!

Although my enthusiasm faded after that first incredible year, I was persuaded to organise the competitions for the following year. 1995 produced the largest number of entries for both competitions for over a decade. I was well chuffed!