Club History Part 1 - 1981 to 1993

THE HISTORY OF

FLIGHT REFUELLING PETANQUECLUB

1981 to 1993

Mike Hackworthy

First Published December 1993

Typed by Samantha Warhurst

Updated by David Warhurst in 2016

CHAPTER 1 The Beginnings

It was March 1981 when Dr John Mikhail and myself decided to form a Petanque Club. We had taken to the game having spent many caravan holidays in France, playing the game whenever we could even at night with torches and a fluorescent jack.We approached the landlord of the Bakers Arms at Lychett Minster who agreed straight away to our request and allowed us to use 12 yards by 10 yards of grass as a terrain. We then arranged for a dozen 6 ft railway sleepers to be delivered from Swanage which arrived a week later at 7 pm one dark very wet evening which we had to manhandle into position. We then returned to the pub tired and wet and with drinks in front of us then decided that John Mikhail would be Chairman of the Bakers Arms Petanque Club, I would be Secretary and that I would approach Lionel Dando to be Treasurer, which I did and he accepted and the Club was formed.However, a boule was never thrown in anger at the Bakers Arms, before we could recruit any members, the landlord informed us that in 2 months time it was his intention to extend the car park which would take in our terrain.

CHAPTER 2 The Bridge House

We decided therefore to look elsewhere and found that the Bridge House Hotel at Longham had a terrain laid and they were looking for someone to start up a Petanque Club. After discussions with Anna Joannides, the landlady, we arranged for the railway sleepers to be ferried from the Bakers Arms to the Bridge House. At this time Anna Joannides approached me and gave me a piece of paper which a customer had left at the bar some two years earlier with his name and address. I phoned Dave Warhurst that same evening who joined us immediately, also of course a founder member. With the terrain ready, we then recruited the following members:- Dave and Jonathon Rogers, Alan and lan Savage and Gordon Richards.

The Bridge House Petanque Club grew in numbers, at one point in November 1981 we had 67 members, wives and children included. Anna Joannides had just had her new Greek Restaurant built and had asked her family friend, film star Telly Savalas on one of his visits to Britain to open the restaurant and also to officially open the terrain by playing a game. After a lot of publicity, and having special flood-lights put up around the terrain Telly Savalas turned up and carried out the opening to a large crowd, on a wet night. The match was between the Bridge House and a team from Southern Television from Southampton.After such a grand opening and with so many members, everything appeared to be going well. We had joined the B.P.A, the Southern 9-a-side League, and had coaching lessons on the rules of the game. But as the months went by members started to fall away and after meetings with the remaining members found the main problem was the site of the terrain was too far away from the facilities of the pub, so we decided to search for another terrain.

CHAPTER 3 The Beehive

John Mikhail and myself visited almost every pub in Parkstone Poole area over the next few weeks, trying to get the interest of the landlord to accept the idea, and finally we visited the Beehive in Lilliput when the pub was virtually a house. The landlord told us of the major developments planned for the pub and felt we would be accepted by Eldridge Pope, we were, and Eldridge Pope, without any hesitation built a superb terrain with flood-lights. On its completion we said our goodbyes to the Bridge House and so the Beehive Petanque Club came into being in 1983.The Beehive proved to be a stabilising factor for the club, as we know it today. The club went from strength to strength, membership increased although we lost contact with a few members due to the move. The club received publicity from a half page article with photographs in the Bournemouth Echo and a challenge was made to 2 CR who accepted and sent twelve staff members including two of their disc jockeys to play us. Unfortunately, despite all the publicity we only received three new members; one I remember only played for 3 weeks and left and the other two remained with us for approximately six weeks and left taking with them a circular piece of hose pipe of approximately 15" diameter, which they always insisted using when throwing the jack.One Sunday morning a new member appeared requesting to play, it was Terry Hayman, Terry had been playing for Hamworthy Petanque Club, and had decided to play for us without a transfer fee involved! About the same time Mike Burden joined us, who later became Chairman of the Club for 4 years. The Club at this time had forty members.It was while the Club was at the Beehive that we started the Twinning Association with the French in Cherbourg, this was arranged for us by Tony Watts and the Club went across to play them at their game in September 1983. The match took place in the car park of the Abattoir in Cherbourg. They won the game and we all returned on the same day with friendships established. The Club has since continued a yearly meeting with the French Club, taking it in turns to host each other on alternate years. The Poole Twinning Association presented a large shield for the Annual Event and the two local Petanque Clubs, Hamworthy and ourselves joined together to represent Poole on these occasions. Poole has only managed to win the trophy on one occasion. This has now developed into the highlight of the Clubs calendar and close friendships have formed over the years.After a happy 2 year period the Club had notification that local residents were unhappy with the noise level on the terrain, particularly on Sunday mornings. The issue became to a head when the Brewers Eldridge Pope took the local residents to court. However the case was lost, one resident had made a statement which was heard in court, in which he stated "the clashing of the balls together on the terrain was most irritating", so the end of our days at the Beehive was in sight. We held a committee meeting at the Harbour Heights Hotel, March 1985. John Mikhail was still Chairman myself Secretary, Dave Rogers was Team Captain, Lionel Dando was Treasurer and if my memory serves me right, in attendance were Dave Warhurst, Alan and lan Savage, Terry Hayman and Mike Burden. This meeting was to be the last one Chaired by John Mikhail as his proposed to move to Branksome Chine was not liked by the other members and that night the split of the club started.I received a very late telephone call from John Mikhail who was very upset that the members had not liked the decision to move to Branksome Chine and because of the call I resigned as Secretary of the Beehive Petanque Club that night, delivering all the Club paperwork to his home the following morning. Lionel Dando also received a telephone call from John Mikhail even later that night the conversation being very similar to mine. On paper John Mikhail was Chairman of the Beehive but the rest of the members were prepared to leave the Beehive to form another club.

CHAPTER 4 The Red Lion

Dave Warhurst had noticed that the Red Lion Pub at Hamworthy had a gravel car park so I met the landlord in May 1985 who was happy to accept us and so the Red Lion Petanque Club was formed. Lionel Dando sent a letter to the Southern B.P.A. dated 26 September 1985 confirming that the Beehive Club Constitution allowed the remaining assets to be split on a percentage basis between the two clubs to promote the furtherance of Petanque.The Red Lion Club had 23 members in June 1985 with Mike Burden as Chairman, Lionel Dando as Treasurer, myself as Secretary, Alan Savage as Captain, Dave Rogers as Vice Captain. The terrain was a loose gravel, liked by quite a few members, it was just large enough to play three games at once, and if necessary we did have use of a disused driveway as well. A single flood-light was kindly installed by the landlord but unfortunately the bulbs were constantly stolen so it was a question of scaling the flood-light pole after use to remove the bulb. The annual matches against Hamworthy were started while at the Red Lion using the trophies presented by Cherbourg as awards for the Doubles and Triples Competitions.We played happily at the Red Lion for nearly four years, and it was here that Bill Clarke and Mike Gillingham, who was later to become Team Captain joined up. It was in June 1988 when the landlord confirmed that due to extensions of the Pub this car park was also to be extended into our terrain, so once again we had to start looking for a new home for the club.

CHAPTER 5 The Pure Drop

I was advised by both Dave Warhurst and Terry Hayman that the Pure Drop Pub at Ferndown had facilities for a terrain, so again a visit to the landlord to gain his acceptance was made and we commenced to play on an area of rough grass which was to be for only at matter of a few Sundays before the local residents again objected to the building of the terrain from which they anticipated a lot of noise, so again we were looking for a new venue.

CHAPTER 6 Flight Refuelling

It was Dave Warhurst who suggested I approach Flight Refuelling Social Club. I did this in September 1988 and we dug the foundations of our present terrain, with the help of all members, organised by Mike Burden. Samantha Warhurst joined and was at 10 years old, our youngest regular player at this time. We have since had a number of members join the club Joy Watts, Alan Cannard and Colin Clarke all of whom have been very supportive of the club, and Steve Bishop and Caroline who put on a splendid Spanish Dance Cabaret at the French visit in 1993.The Club is still a member of the B.P.A. and its members have played successfully in many open competitions over the past few years. The Club joined the New Forest and District League in 1992 and became Runners-up in their first year of taking part.We have held regularly a number of social events including our Annual Dinner and Presentation Evening.The Clubs future looks reasonably secure and recently we have improved the terrain by fencing, seats and good quality flood-lights. It is hoped that we can extend the terrain in future to allow the Club to hold more open events.The clubs present officers are Dave Warhurst as Chairman, myself as Secretary, Lionel Dando as Treasurer, Mike Burden as Team Captain, lan Savage as Vice Captain, and the paid up membership stands at 19.To be continued,Re-published in 2010