Club

NAME FOR ITSELF
hy Higginbottom, presents Club
e to mark being featured as Club of
hire Branch Secretary
Michael Jeffers.
is
has
had a ramp leading to the front door and
this has now been widened to give improved
wheelchair access.
Inside the club is all on
lub Journal’s
Club of the Month:
sley East Dene
ing Men’s Club
East Dene WMC
r Road, Barnsley S70 1UD
e South Yorkshire Branch.
neken UK, Molson Coors,
arlsberg-Tetley
ast Dene WMC (Barnsley)
The ramp leading to the front door has been widened giving
wheelchair access to the club’s stunning new foyer (right).
one level with a huge
concert room, a games
room and a pub-style
snug. The concert
room, which can hold
300 people, is kept
busy with old time
dancing on Monday
evenings, a slimming
club on Tuesdays,
bingo on Wednesdays
and Fridays, members’
private functions on
Saturdays, and, live
music on Sunday
nights. The club also
runs regular events
in support of local
charities such as
the local Hospice
and the Alzheimer’s
Society as well as
a national charity.
Last year £2,400
was raised for Help
for Heroes and this
year the Yorkshire
Air Ambulance is being supported.
The games room has two full-size snooker
tables including one that dates back to 1892
and originally belonged to the nearby St
Peter’s Church. They are also used for the
rare sport of table bowls, where small bowls
with a similar bias to lawn bowls are rolled
down a chute onto the table.
A spectacular collection of trophies pays
homage to the club’s sporting interests
with some of the largest being for women’s
darts. There are also spectacular trophies for
fishing — the club has both freshwater and
sea angling sections — and for snooker from
Heineken UK.
Steve would like to place on record that
Heineken’s recently-retired Mike Scanlan has
been a great help to the club as have Brett
Powell from CIU Insurance Services and
South Yorkshire Branch Secretary Ken Green,
who has given invaluable advice on some
recent sensitive issues.
Steve is also grateful to the support he
has from President Michael Jeffers, long
serving Treasurer Tony Smith, who has just
received his Distinguished Service Award
and the Committee. To assist the committee
a new computer system has been installed
to manage membership and subscriptions
as well as all the traditional draws, totes
and raffles. Written and devised by former
Secretary John Hall the system handles
everything that’s needed and frees the
committee for other duties.
“It’s been fantastic,” says Michael. “We
used to need three Committee members to
check the Tote double on a Sunday night,
for instance, and if there wasn’t a winner we
had to check it all again. Now it’s a press of
a button. Similarly, subscriptions can now be
printed and recorded faster than we could
write them up.”
The club had been founded nearby as the
Quarry Street WMC and after a previous
bankruptcy in 1912 emerged as the Mount
Osborne Club after acquiring Osborne House,
the home of businessman Hugo Wood.
The house was famous for its peacocks and
the club were able to make two separate
bowling greens within the grounds. Sadly
these were lost when the current premises
were built in 1966, though it has gained a
sizeable car park.
Barnsley’s Oakwell ground, is less than 10
minutes’ walk away. Fans travelling by car are
welcome to drop in as are coach parties by
appointment.
This new club regained its deeds in time for
its 50th anniversary in 1988 and to celebrate
the Committee gave every man in the club a
tie and every woman a bone china mug. More
celebrations are planned early next year
though the Committee never forget that their
success is only achieved through hard work.
Says Steve: “It’s the members who have built
this club up, we are only here to run it for
them.”
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Club Journal November 2012 11
CJ November 2012.indd 11 24/10/2012 12:43