1986

1986

January 1986 started with an air of expectancy awaiting a reply from Blue Circle, the Club had a busy year ahead with many social events arranged, a half marathon, Christmas Jamboree and a 5-a-side competition all to raise money for our Clubhouse be it the one we would build on Murston Park or now on a more positive note the A.P.C.M. Clubhouse. The Building Fund stood at £4,715 with the Jamboree having raised £212 and the Christmas Dance £169.

On 7 February a letter was received from Blue Circle agreeing to the 10 year Lease; the Clubs' Officers Rusty Burgin, Sandra Tapp, Colin Gunn and Peter Scales the Land Secretary met and drew up a list of questions for the Main Club Committee to go through to cover most aspects on the negotiations. On 18 February these are the points which were discussed and agreed:

1. Membership stood at 284 plus 15 honorary and membership would be frozen.

2. Existing Members of the A.P.C.M. would be invited to join Woodcoombe.

3. The Rugby team had also wanted to Lease the Clubhouse and it was agreed that for the time being they would not be invited to join our Club.

4 Existing bookings at the club would be honoured

5. A Planning Committee would be set up and the Officers recommended: Rusty Burgin would be the Chairman plus: Peter Scales, Colin,Gunn, Peter Wyeth, Len Bateman, Ray Oddy.

6. Blue Circle to be asked for information on Breweries

7. An Extra-Ordinary General Meeting of the Members be called and a letter sent from the Chairman with an update and letting them know that an E.G.M. would happen.

8. Trustees were discussed

9. Agreed the Improvement and Development of the Clubhouse to go to the Planning Committee.

10. Also agreed Colin Gunn to approach the bank and also check the Fire Regulations, Peter Wyeth to look at Licences, Peter Scales to write to our Solicitor and Peter also to write to B.C.I. offering £1,000 for the two snooker tables. Also agreed that we take on our own staff and as it stood the Lease would start on 1 June 1986 at £10,000 per annum, we would ask for the first six months free to get us started.

On the 10 April a very important meeting was held at Blue Circle House in Snodland with Rusty Burgin, Sandra Tapp, Colin Gunn and Peter Scales representing the Club with three B.C.I. Officials. There was discussion on equipment and furniture, rental payments, maintenance standards, Licences, fruit machines and snooker tables (too expensive for us to buy as they wanted £5,000), they discussed stock taking, running costs, current membership, utilities and improvements, they also agreed a handover date of 2 June 1986 .

On 14 April the OFFICERS reported back to the Main Club Committee who went through everything with a fine toothcomb, and Peter Scales reported that our “guestimation” figures were basically on target and we would break even taking into account the first years rent of £10,000 although this had been negotiated to £5,000 for the first year taking the first free six months into account.

The Main Club Committee had appointed a Bar Sub-Committee, (Planning Committee) as already mentioned, yes a lot of committees but all necessary with so much going on. This committee's task was to discuss staffing, opening hours and to appoint a BAR MANAGER . The General Secretary Sandra Tapp wrote to the Membership on 29 March inviting applications from the Membership. It was agreed that Rusty Burgin, Peter Scales and Brian Sherwood who was independent of any of the sub committees would do the interviewing.

Of course whilst all this was going on life elsewhere in the Club was bustling too. There was a Valentine's Disco on 14 February a Youth Disco on 22 February, A Hen Night on 24 March which Marion Gunn and Sandra Tapp absolutely worked their socks off and the tickets were all sold in no time at all, enough money was raised to purchase the 80 chairs on sale by the Fox & Goose at £5 each.

On 21 March a Horse Racing Evening with eight teams was held, on the 12 April there was a 50's & 60's disco organised by the Cricket Section, and on the 15 th June a Treasure Hunt - the Social Committee were in full flow and also had the Presentation Dinner to organise.

The Presentation Dinner and Dance took place at the Town Hall on 9 May dancing to the Bronx Band and the Club's Awards were presented to: Marion Gunn Member of the Year, Rose Hines Lady of the Year, Sandra Tapp Chairman's Award, and the Murston Park Shield was awarded jointly to Colin Gunn and Brian Bartlett.

On 28 April the Land Management Sub Committee Brian Bartlett, Colin Gunn, Peter Wyeth, Shaun Burgin, Ray Oddy and Peter Scales the Committee's Chairman, reported that all mowers had been overhauled, light roller purchased, the broken window in the garage was boarded up, fencing repaired, 15 concrete bollards had been made to go around the corner car park and 2 concrete benches had been purchased for £15. Discussion took place on repairs to the ground around the goalmouths and application of weed killer on the whole field. Topsoil, ballast and turf were ordered, and it had been agreed by the Main Club Committee that the management of the changing rooms in the A.P.C.M. would come under this committee. This committee met once a month but the upkeep of Murston Park was obviously very important and was continuous; with everything going on regarding the Lease of the A.P.C.M. this committee just got on with the important tasks entrusted to them.

On 4 February Rusty Burgin and Sandra Tapp attended a meeting of Sittingbourne Ladies Hockey Club now our Hockey Section when it transpired that they were worried that the hockey pitch would not be ready for next season, Rusty assured them that everything was on schedule for the pitch and the Club had already spent £630 including their donation of £250. Sandra and Rusty were told that some of the members would not be renewing their membership with Woodcoombe so there was concern for the section. It was agreed that the hockey players hold an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting and get back to us, at the E.G.M. the hockey team withdrew from the Club and therefore the section no longer existed. On 14 April the hockey team sent Woodcoombe a cheque for £150 towards the money spent on Murston Park.

This was not the only section lost to the Club that year, in June Keith Baldock the Chairman of the Video Section attended the Main Club Committee to explain that due to rising costs the section could not go on without a huge cash injection which would not be asked for, at their Annual General Meeting the section had therefore agreed to fold. The section passed over £147.17 which was in their bank account after selling off old videos to members.

On 23 April an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting was held where new Rules were accepted giving a new management structure and the Chairman Rusty Burgin was able to answer questions about the proposed leasing of the A.P.C.M. The position of Bar Manager was also filled when following interviews with Charlie Harrington, John Hook and Colin Gunn, it was announced that Colin Gunn was the successful candidate.

At the Annual General Meeting in May the following were elected: Chairman, Rusty Burgin, General Secretary Sandra Tapp, Treasurer Peter Scales, replacing Colin Gunn, Membership Secretary Tony Cuthbert, Sections Secretary Brian Sherwood, Social Secretary Ray Oddy, Bar Secretary Peter Wyeth, Land Secretary Brian Bartlett, General Committee Members: en Bateman, Bill Tingey, Shaun Burgin and Cliff Hogan. Jock Weir chaired the meeting as Rusty Burbin was sick and he expressed great pleasure at the Club's progress. A vote of thanks went to Colin Gunn for all his hard work, and thanks went to Barrie Tapp and Tim Byrne for once again auditing the books – professionals would be used in future.

There was going to be a new form for members to complete which covered all members of the family and would show the category of a member. Membership was agreed as £6 with nil for juniors.

There was a lot of buzz and excitement around the Club during May and a lot of anticipation as to when it would all happen. On 10 June Peter Scales went to see the Club's four TRUSTEES they were the four people who had signed the Lease on Murston Park on behalf of the Club and they were about to sign the Lease with Blue Circle for the A.P.C.M. Clubhouse, they are: Eddie Pilgrim, George Gibson, Peter Scales and Ray Oddy. Also at a meeting that day discussion took place on Gaming Licence Application, Insurance, Health and Safety and the fact that the Fire Officer was now satisfied that the fire appliances were working. The committee certainly got a quart from a pint with all the things they had to do.

Amongst the other things the Main Club Committee discussed were terms of reference for the Bar Committee, the Land Committee and the Social Committee. It was agreed that the Assistant Secretary Chair the meetings plus one other Main Club Committee Member and 3 other members. The Land Committee became responsible for the Changing Rooms, the Bar Committee responsible for the activities in the bar, and also for the appointment of Bar Staff.

The Signed Lease was finally agreed on 23 June 1986 and we also went before the Magistrates for Application for a Club Licence. On the 24 th June the stock takers went in ours was Roy Jackson , a price agreed and there we were our first day up and running. £100 was spent on food and drink to wet the Club's head, after 22 years with no base here we were celebrating and toasting WOODCOOMBE'S NEW CLUBHOUSE AND NEW HOME.

So what was this Clubhouse building like? Firstly it was conveniently across the road to our playing field Murston Park and secondly it had potential for expansion and maybe one day purchase.

It had changing rooms, a hall with no bar, the rear windows overlooked land at the back and the hall was next to the kitchen, from the kitchen window you could see the overgrown bowling green and land. Opposite the kitchen in the hallway were the toilets. The games room/bar also overlooked the bowling green and the other side of the window is where the new lounge with small stage now stands. The bar was small and back to back with the kitchen, and the snooker tables were in the same position as in 2004 . There was no entrance lobby as Members used the main door situated in the centre of the front of the building. The walled car park was there but no parking down the side and no gates, also no tennis court went with the land.

In June Colin Gunn and SandraTapp went to see Mr Earl at the Nat. West Bank to ask for a loan of £5,000, just in case we needed it. At one point during the discussion Colin kicked Sandra's foot under the table, think he must have thought she was about to put that foot “in it”. As a result of the meeting a loan was agreed but the bank wanted Guarantors for the money. It is well known that when they came out of the bank Colin said to Sandra “time to put your money where your mouth is”.

On 11 July at a meeting at Sandra's house the following five people put pen to paper and acted as GUARANTORS for the Club to the tune of £1,000 each. They were: Sandra Tapp, Colin Gunn, Ray Oddy, Eddie Pilgrim and Tony Cuthbert. There were of course others who would have done the same, but this shows the confidence these five had not only in themselves, that they would make it all work out, but the great confidence they all had in each other's abilities. In effect the GUARANTORS were putting their own necks on the line!

There were of course lots of jobs to do around the Clubhouse including washing walls and what a wonderful member we had in Marion Gunn who set about making curtains for the hall, lounge, games room and finally the stage.

Just to give an idea of the things going on, still at pace, up until the end of the year, there were new pumps fitted behind the bar, ice making machine installed, lager offer from Whitbread taken up, we were looking at smoke extractors, a new tape player for the music in the bar was purchased, Charlie Barker worked hard keeping the snooker tables in order and Cheryl Oddy came by three second-hand table tennis tables. A new cooker was purchased, glasses and an Electronic Dart Scorer.

Obviously the Club was looking to save as much money as possible and on 7th July the General Secretary wrote to MR THOMAS at Swale Borough Council asking for a rent reduction on Murston Park, in November he came back with a 3 year reduction the rent being halved to £300 per annum.

On 6 July the Football Section hosted a Senior 5 a-side competition which attracted 40 teams, the main organisers were : Barrie Tapp, Dave Matthews and Fred Grover and Barrie had invited any boys over 13 in the Club who would like to be ball boys to get in touch. The event brought £500 into the Club!

5 a-side was a sport the Club excelled at and the following players represented South East England against teams like Scotland and Northern Ireland at Luton on 5/6 July: Richard Lusted, Daren Hines, Wayne Lewer, John Hancock and John Kaye. The Under 16 team won the National Association of Youth Clubs Great Britain Trophy.

During 1986 the Club also took on two major events to raise money for the Club. They were the half marathon and a second Christmas Jamboree. A lot of planning for the half marathon took place in 1985 but these continued at pace as the race was run on Sunday April 6 th .

In March the Club was devastated to learn of the death of Cliff Clements whilst out running, Cliff left wife Sylvia and daughters Alison and Sarah . Sittingbourne Lights donated a CLIFF CLEMENTS MEMORIAL TROPHY to be presented to the first Woodcoombe runner to finish.

In true Woodcoombe tradition the half marathon committee picked itself up and got on with the arrangements. Sandra Tapp, Marion and Colin Gunn spent many mornings together planning, Marion made armbands for the marshals and jackets and did many of the posters to go around the course, Colin, amongst other things, prepared the Runners' pack which contained all the information the runners could need. and Sandra never left the typewriter and issued the running numbers and packs as the entries came in with help from daughter Sue Tapp and husband Barrie Tapp - there was a great deal to do. The running numbers were issued according to sex, age and speed, for example the Over Forties i.e. Veterans, had numbers in the 400 range for easy identification. Maybe one of the funniest things was collecting the cones from the Town Hall to go down the A249, not many per car! Putting up the Start and Finish flags fell to Colin these had to be placed perfectly so that the distance was an exact ½ Marathon.

In March Sandra Tapp sent out letters to all the volunteers who would be marshalling the course to tell them where they would be positioned on the course and the approximate time the runners would pass, a car would follow the tail enders and the marshals would be told when their task was completed. A full briefing of the 120 marshals, 69 on the course was held on April 2 nd so that the marshals could get an overall impression of what would occur, they also heard a few words from Chief Inspector Coltham. They were each sent a marked map to show them where they would be standing.

Also briefed were the early risers who would drive round the course putting up the direction signs on the lampposts. The team at the Clubhouse included timekeepers in case anything went wrong with the clock, once again Bill Tingey was holding a clip board as he was in charge of this department, his crew included all Main Club Committee Members and their wives not otherwise engaged, holding stop watches. Keith Baldock was responsible for the C.B. system and Maggie Scales and Jackie Sherwood the canteen . Brian Bartlett also had a clip board as he was to navigate the lead car around the course. Brian Sherwood was responsible for getting runners over to the funnel system, Sandra Tapp was in the hall collating the finishing order and Colin Gunn was everywhere else! Chairman Rusty Burgin looked after the guests including The Mayor and Counsellors. In her newsletter in March to the members Sandra wrote the following:

“ The long awaited day the Club's half marathon will soon be here and let's hope it will be as prestigious for Sittingbourne as I am sure it will be for the Club. The race will be started at Murston Park at 10 a.m. by The Mayor with Miss Sittingbourne in attendance, and the race will take between 1hr 10mins and 2.5 hours to complete, presentations will be made at 12.00 noon. If you come down to the Park leave your car as there will be Police No Waiting Signs. Here seems a good place to thank Sittingbourne Police and Swale Borough Council for their fantastic co-operation.

WHAT'S ON AT MURSTON PARK :

FUN CASTLE, CANTEEN, BAR, and Murston Scouts manning our Baggage Tents. There is a P.A. System over which you can hear the progress of the race thanks to the wonder of C.B.s. A funnel system with a computer is used at the Finish, and Swale Motors are providing a car to carry our double sided clock. Prizes: £100 Holiday Vouchers for first man and woman, ticket for 2 plus car to Holland from Olau second place, Veteran's Cup from Harpers, £50 petrol for first Sittingbourne runner from Swale Motors and the Cliff Clements Memorial Cup donated by the Christmas Lights committee for the first Woodcoombe runner.

There will be 20 specials on the course plus 2 police cars and 2 police motor cyclists and St. John's Ambulance, our thanks to them, also 65 of our own Marshals, three Junior Football teams on the drinks stations plus the “Rosettes” our girls, on another. There will also be 6 C.B. cars and our thanks to Swale Breakers for their help.

The route is as follows: Murston Park, Dolphin Road, Castle Rd., Eurolink Way, Crown Quay, St. Michaels Rd., passed the station and under bridge to Mill Way roundabout, Church St., Chalkwell Rd., A.2, Staplehurst Rd., Windmill Rd. Laxton Way (Drinks Station), Vicarage Rd, North St., Grovehurst Rd., Bramblefield Lane, Sheppey Way, Key St A.2, Sandford Rd., Gadby Rd., Staplehurst Rd., back to Chalkwell roundabout, Millway Roundabout, station, St. Michael's Rd., East St., Harold Rd., Thomas Rds., Woodberry Drive (Drinks Station), Keswick and Vincent, back to A.2 down to Hempstead Lane and passing Duck Pond, Tong Rd., Oak Rd., Broom Rd, Portland Ave., Tong Rd., Church Rd., Murston Park.

Runners to watch for: Woodcoombe Teams chasing Courage's Prize: Team A: 131 Tim BryneE, 132 Mark Clements, 133 Neil Matthews, 134 Clive Rossiter - Team K 312 Peter Wyeth, 313 Steve Hammond, 362 Robert Bartlett, 372 Shaun Burgin. Watch out for teams E – H the Fox & Goose - Dave Cogger 309, Bob Grover 371, Peter Hearne 428 (running for Hospital), Sue Lambert also running for the hospital, and Graham Ware all Woodcoombe. All our runners need sponsorship and I will be pleased to take offers of sponsorship for them, the money raised will go to the Clubhouse. No. 45 is Lynn Hughes ex-world record holder at 40 miles. Other runners of interest locally and are very fast are: Martyn Underwood No. 5 from Bapchild, No. 30 William Keevil from Cheshire, No. 10 Paul Constable from Rainham, Tony Ervin No. 18 from Sheerness, and Dave Deevoy from Periwinkle Close No.28. Annie Briggs No. 17 is the fastest recorded lady. There are 35 ladies. I hope this list helps you enjoy the race even more. SPONSERS! I forgot No. 151 Steve steer a member of our ½ Marathon Committee!

ENJOY THE RACE. TURN OUT. LOTS OF WORK GONE INTO IT. 350/400 RUNNERS. “

The race was won by Anthony Irwin in a time of 1.11.36.2 with Martin Underdown second 1.11.56.2, he was also the first local runner, the first lady was Susan Martin in 1.28.33.0 and the first Veteran Lynn Hughes in 1.12.39.9. Our own Committee Member P eter Wyeth proudly carried off THE CLIFF CLEMENTS MEMORIAL TROPHY for the first Woodcoombe runner, and Medway Veteran's won the team award. Our own teams finished in 6th and 7th places.

After the race the Club received many letters of congratulations, one was from Matt Davitt of Cambridge Harriers and read:

“Having just completed my seventh ½ Marathon of 1986 I must congratulate you and your team on a very well organised event also on the excellent quality of finishers medal."

Points: Well Policed – Well Marshalled – Drinks Stations, just right! And an excellent course (Don't change it, please) - security for our belongings – splendid (A thing bigger events don't ever consider) and most of all how pleasant and helpful everyone was. Unfortunately the day was cold but it won't be like that every year. Once again thank you for a most enjoyable day.

P.S. I was a Scottish International Long Distance Athlete until last year when I had to have a heart-pace-maker implant and am just getting back to a sort of fitness, and am also pleased to say that I did a personal best on Sunday, on the races I've done after my transplant.”

After the successful race a Race Results Sheet had to be compiled using the numbers and times, Keith Baldock offered to help on this one and did it on his computer. Unfortunately Keith was not around the following years to do this which would leave Sandra and Colin the extensive job of doing it manually. In September the ½ Marathon Committee started meeting again joined by A lison Clements and planning for 1987 started.

The second big event which the Club staged again was THE CHRISTMAS JAMBOREE, Rose Hines started rehearsing the cast on a Tuesday evening in July and once again with Una Burgin her assistant what a production they put on over three nights.

Rose was the Master of Ceremonies this time and introduced Matt Vinyl and the Emulsions who did various musical turns throughout the show, she also called on Terry Barton to help out throughout the show with his guitar and he did a routine on his own. Gary Maslin introduced the ROSETTES , the same line up as last year who did the 12 Days of Christmas using the large cards to get audience participation. Diane Yardley's Family tap-danced as the Cockney Tappers and Pea Mount did a Christmas monologue.

“The Flanagan's” were a big hit with Terry Wellard,John Rees, Albert Stubberfield and Terry Harper dressed to look the part and singing the part! The Puppeteers was also an act with a difference, two puppeteers working two human puppets: Jo Pilgrim, Kara Sweeney, Heidi Stonecliff and Emma Hawkins. In the middle of the show there was an emergency when Peter Scales was rushed down the hall on a stretcher onto the stage, we then witnessed an operation in shadow behind a curtain, very good, a large saw was used and bits came out of the body, at the end surgeon Wendy Bryant appeared with a healed Peter Scales!

We were entertained by the angelic voices of Lorraine and Michelle, and charmed by the little ones doing their nativity scene, then on came the very serious comedy duo of Curry and Champagne, Ray Oddy and Tina Tingey with “Goodness Gracious Me” , say no more!

The Silhouettes had a new line-up from last year with Chris Thorne, Kath Jaques, Wendy Bryant, Una Burgin and Sandra Tapp singing well known oldies; and once again the ROSETTES did several dances including the finally “Can Can”, again a sensation.

“Play Your Cards Right” for audience participation was excellent with Brian Bartlett doing an excellent “Brucey” assisted by Deborah Burgin. The cards were brilliant and as good as those on the telly and were drawn by Richard Shepherd.

Behind the scenes Brian Sherwood was on the lights and David Burgin co-ordinated the opening and closing of the curtains, Stage Manager at the back, nothing moved without his say so, was Bill Tingey (must have been born with that clipboard), and Colin Gunn Trouble-shooter. What a wonderful job Rose Hines and Una Burgin did.

December was very busy in the Club, our first Christmas, there was a Christmas Bazaar, 130 children attended the Christmas party and Santa did house calls on Christmas morning, there was a Christmas Eve disco and Boxing Day lunchtime disco and all the tickets for New Year's Eve were sold.

At year end the Club had 457 Full Members, 17 Honorary and 54 O.A.P.s and the Club was showing a profit of £6,895.01, a very healthy way to close the year, and what a year 1986 was!!!