28th Post.....Let the Games begin...

The 3 Amigos.....the Sepia Tint was not intended but apt nonetheless!!

Sean is very confident Charlie's bouncing boule won't affect the score......

Sunshine....but nobody opened a button. Only one exposed the solar panel...

Frenemies....including Michael from the Bushy Park Boules group.

Thanks to Ciaran for the photos and some of the quips.....

We played our first week of Competition this Wednesday 4th March 2020.  As you can see from the table below six players played in 2 x 3 format. There was a tiny margin of just four points between the teams.  The three players share the same scores on the day.  Play started at 10:30 and finished at Noon, as it will on all competition days.

Players not entering the Competition will be drawn as per usual only they won't need to enter their scores on the sheet. Non-Competition players will be mixed with the Competition players when the draw is being made.  The Competition is secondary to the enjoyment of the community game.

The St. Anne's group play their competition on Wednesdays also, so they won't be able to play in Alden Park except on Mondays and Saturdays.

	NAMES	Week 1
	Date:	Wed. 04 / 03 / 20
	Game:	G.1	G.2	G.3	Tot.	R.T.
1	Beausang, Pat				0	0
2	Buckley, Tom	8	11		19	19
3	Dolan, Michael	13	10		23	23
4	Gahan, John				0	0
5	Grehan, Chris	8	11		19	19
6	Jenkins, Sean	13	10		23	23
7	Lloyd, Gerry				0	0
8	Moloney, Tommy				0	0
9	O Donoghue, Charlie	8	11		19	19
10	O Donoghue, Kathryn				0	0
11	Walsh, Ciaran	13	10		23	23

On Saturday we had thirteen players in relatively mild conditions.

Nine of the Best.....

Someone is going to be taken down a peg or three....

Concentration....the name of the game....

When 'skill' and 'luck' converge.......

The article below is copied from the Northside People East - 5th March 2020

• Northside East

Sutton locals bowled over by new amenity

Thursday, 5th March, 2020 11:43am

The new facility opened in Sutton. PHOTO SHANE O'NEILL

LOCALS in Sutton have received a boost following the official opening of a new leisure facility. 

Mayor of Fingal Cllr Eoghan O’Brien opened the Boules/Petanque Courts recently at Alden Park.  

Fingal Director of Operations David Storey, Deputy Cian O’Callaghan (SD), members of Age Friendly Fingal and enthusiastic boules players tried out the courts on the day.

Fingal County Council installed the courts as part of its ongoing commitment to provide high quality recreational facilities for all age groups.  

Local resident and keen boules player, Tom Donnellan, initially approached Deputy O’Callaghan with a proposal for a boules court in an underutilised area of the park.  

Mr Donnellan is a member of a boules club currently playing out of St Anne’s Boules Park and realised that there was a need to have courts based nearer to home as many residents of Fingal were having to travel to St Anne’s Park to play.

The facility is free to use and will be run on a ‘turn up and play’ basis. The game is one of the most inclusive activities available where people of all ages, gender, ability and fitness can participate equally together. 

Instructions for playing boules and petanque are included on an attractive wooden noticeboard on site. 

The courts are a wonderful addition to the park, helping to meet the recreational needs of the older population in line with the council’s Age Friendly 2018-2023 Strategy.  

Fingal’s Age Friendly Alliance is committed, through the strategy, to driving a collaborative, multi-sectoral approach which supports interventions that will significantly help to improve the quality of life of the current population of older people in Fingal and of future generations.  

Speaking at the opening, Mayor O'Brien said: “I am delighted to open this Boules/Petangue Court and can see that it will be hugely popular with both locals here in Sutton and enthusiasts from other areas of Fingal.”