Very interesting reading Richard's post today and his views regarding skips and how clubs have changed in how quickly they allow players to skip. Having been a teacher of physical education for over 35 years I will say that there has been a marked change in how sports coaching has changed. The emphasis has become much more "have a go/learn as you play" rather than the traditional apprentiship approach to playing. Whether this is for the better is really dependent on the individual and how much support they get within their particular situation. In our club we, as most clubs, start players at front end but our coaches quite quickly seem to be able to assess the potential of players to play back end. If that is the case one to one coaching is offered. Match practice/playing is given in one of the five leagues that we play in; in this we pick an experienced player to play on a rink with a relatively new player to back end. This has generally worked quite well however it is dependent on the experienced players ability to communicate in a positive manner. Not all good bowlers make good coaches. We are lucky in that our membership is good in terms of numbers and ability. Also our qualified coaches are a real assett to our club.

I bought a set of new woods during the summer for myself and was involved in buying a number of other sets for a school's sports association that I do some work for. My own woods, Tigers, are blue and found shopping around gave me a range of prices. At the top end they were £420 on a number of sites. I eventually got them for £390 from a local sports shop, Sixways Sport in Clevedon. There was a delay in getting them as they needed to be part of a shipment coming into the country, these shipments seem to come into the country from 4-6 months apart. I could have got black woods with little delay but the rise in the number of people wanting coloured woods seems to caused a shortage problem especially for popular sizes. The ones bought for the schools were all black and were available with little delay. One of our members recently bought a set of woods for £495 so touching £500 already. I hasten to add these were a "fancy" set!

Hi Dave, Thanks for your help. Barry