Club History Part 2 - 1994 to 2017

THE HISTORY OF FLIGHT REFUELLING PETANQUE CLUB - 1994 to 2017

David Warhurst – Chairman 1985-2015

The Club continued to play at Flight Refuelling Sports and Social Club. In 1995 we had 26 members with Mike Burden now as Captain. Alain Pompon joined us and the following year the Geere’s and Phil Brown.

In this period the Club started the two annual open competitions the Triples and the Doubles. The Open Triples Shield was in memory of David Rogers a founder member.

The “Bottom” terrain was added, doubling the playing area and surrounded by former railway wooden sleepers.

By 1998 the membership was 41. Debbie Geere had taken over the Secretary post and the Club Captain was Graham Geere. Membership stayed at this level and in 1999 Roger Bayldon became the Secretary, with Mike Burden as Club Captain.

We now had two teams in the New Forest League the Harriers and the Falcons.

Club Mêlées were introduced for Spring, Bastille, Summer, Autumn and Christmas.About 2000 the Flight Refuelling Sports and Social Club was renamed Cobham’s Sports and Social Club but the Petanque Club retained the Flight Refuelling name.

A new gravel terrain was added in about 2001.In 2002 there was a reduction in members to about 25. Roger Bayldon took the Secretaries position in 2003.

Mike Burden had sadly passed away in 2005 and Colin Clark took the position of Club Captain. A terrain seat was dedicated to Mike and later to Yvonne Millen after her death in 2005. Joy Watts took over as Captain of the Harriers in 2005 and Phil Brown was Captain of the Falcons.

Rachel and Paul Limb and Helen Sheath, also Pete and Ann Dorington joined in 2006 the membership now was 30.

The shelter was added in 2007 to form an area to keep off the rain. It was further improved in 2010 with a canopy extension.

In 2008 Gordon Richard relinquished the Treasures post after many years and Margaret Warhurst became the new Treasure only the 3rd person to be a the Treasurer for the Club.Roger Bayldon gave up as Secretary in 2009 and Rachel Limb took that position. Paul Limb started the Club website at http://www.webjam.com/flightrefuellingpetanqueclub and was the Falcons Captain.

With a few members leaving and a number of new members joining the Club remained at the 32 mark in 2010. At the start of the new season in 2011 there were a few changes with some previous members leaving but other new members joining keeping the numbers much the same. Jeni Charlton was appointed Secretary. Alex Hepburn was appointed Captain of the Falcons and Colin Clark remained as Captain of the Harriers as well as Club Captain. Membership was 30.Both teams continued to play well in the New Forest Petanque League and one of the teams were always in the top 4 since joining the League. The Harriers won the League in 2006, were R/U in 2007, and reached 3rd in 2008, R/U again in 2009 and Winners in 2010.

The twinning event with Cherbourg Petanque continued to be played annually, normally in September. The results indicate that Cherbourg were winners when the competition was played in France and Poole (Flights) were winners when played in Poole on our own terrain. Home advantage seems to prevail!

There were not many changes in the 2012 season the membership remained about the same. Mike Gillingham was elected Club Captain. Gordon Richards past founder member and treasurer for many years and Betty McLoughlin our oldest member were awarded Life Membership of the Club. In 2013 Alex Hepburn became the Secretary and Colin Clarke took the Harriers Captain position. Lionel Dando was awarded Life Membership for services to the Club, founder member, French translator and organiser for the twinning and past treasurer.

2014 saw Adrian Gingell take over as Falcon Captain. Sadly all of our Life Members, Lionel Dando, Betty McLoughlin and Gordon Richards passed away during this year. A number of members left the Club before the beginning of 2015 including Alex Hepburn. Anne Hand took the secretaries position and there was an influx of new members which brought our membership again up to 30.

A new era has begun…………….It was a year of change in the 2016 year. Some of the previous years new members did not renew and left the Club while at the AGM in November 2015 other new members proposed and voted for a change and Margaret Warhurst after 8 years being the Treasurer, was replaced by Elaine Aldersey and the Chairman David Warhurst did not seek re election after Vernon Mitchell was proposed for Chairman. He replaced David Warhurst, a founder member, a committee member from the start of the Club in 1981 and Chairman for over 3O years. Colin Clarke was also replaced by another new member Hilary Annicchiarico as Captain of the Harriers. They missed the cut of the New Forest League when it was divided in two leagues and after being top of the league the previous year were now relegated to the 2nd league for which they became R/U and were promoted to the top league for the 2017 year.The Club was sponsored for club fleeces and these were issued to those who were members of the Flights Teams who played in 2016.

It was during the year that the lights on the terrain were changed to LED by Cobhams. Having paid annual ground rent for the terrain that the Petanque Club built and maintained, we were informed that the terrain now did not belong to us but after all the years, and was owned by Cobhams Club.Over the past years the Club has maintained a website and a Facebook page. One of the Flights teams has always been within the top 4 places in the New Forest Petanque League and the Harriers have been recent winners in 2006, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014, and R/U 2007, 2009, and R/U in Division 2 in 2016.

Winner of the KO Cup 2014. The Club has enjoyed 33 years of twinning and friendship with Cherbourg Petanque and equally sharing the spoils over that time.

Reviewing the membership from 1995, some of the loyal members from that period are still Club members, they are David Warhurst, Alan Cannard, Colin Clarke, Joy Watts and Mike Gillingham.