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Horse racing maybe the sport of kings, but I can neither ride nor am I a king so I settled for the next best option the sport of pins that of the bowling variety.  So on Wednesday the 7th nine Olympians rocked up to the Barnsley Metrodome leisure complex to toss some balls and rattle some pins, So first things first we needed to get kitted up... Beer and shoes, granted we did struggle to find a pair that matched Gemma's outfit but we eventually found her a natty little pair, open toed with a Cuban heel and a tasteful Velcro strap so we could finally hit the lanes, let battle commence.

In the boys lane the early pace was set but Joe "Ginger Roller" Worthington and Scott "Scatter Gun" Kaye, points for artistic impression for their bowling style should go to Ollie "Vigorous" Hyde but after frames 4 and 5 The Ginger roller and the Scatter guns challenge started to wan leaving game one to be fought out by Ian "Pin Basher" Bragger and Richard "The Machine" Grange with the latter just edging the later frames win a close fought first match.

Over in the girls game the it was good to see the unmistakeable bowling style of Gemma "Distain" Fletcher as she sent pins flying, but was pushed all the way by Kirstie "Slinger" Barnett and Charlie "Gutter Ball" , but breaking away from her past form Debbie "Bowling Hater" Tills came from nowhere to claim victory in the first game.  

We interviewed the "Bowling Hater" and asked her how she managed to raise her game to this whole new level, whether it involved a new training schedule or coaching, but she apparently been applying a more psychological approach to her game claiming her victory was all down to her lucky odd socks in which she never fails when she wears them, so in game 2 she must have taken them off because normal service was resumed and the "Distain" was firing on all cylinders as she sent the pins flying and was unstoppable in claiming the second game in the girly lane.

Back in the boys lane and "The Machine" got into the swing, pin after pin fell to his ultra accurate bowling leaving the other bowlers in his wake and appeared to be coasting to an easy second victory, until the "Ginger Roller" stepped forward for his last frame, he then proceeded to throw not one not two but three strikes dragging himself into the lead, but "The Machine" wasn't fazed and limped over the finish line to claim victory.

By Social Director, Richard Grange

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By Solveig Malvik, 2012 JCI UK President

Congratulations to the winners of the 2011 JCI UK National Awards at this weekends JCI UK National Convention, Sheffield!

Every year local Chambers across the UK submit awards to be recognized for their hard work and efforts during the year. The winning awards go on to the European Awards at the JCI European Conference in Braunschweig in 2012.

Please join us in congratulating the following:

NATIONAL AWARDS
Most Outstanding Community Project
Winner - JCI Manchester for their 3 Peaks Challenge

Most Outstanding Fundraising Project
Winner - JCI Leeds for Fashion Bites Back

Most Outstanding Business Project
Winner - JCI Sheffield 'There's an App for that!'

Most Outstanding Training and Development Programme
Winner - JCI Sheffield Academy
Certificate of Merit - JCI Southampton Personal Development Programme

Most Outstanding International Project
Winner -JCI London's 'Live Like a Londoner' weekend

Most Outstanding Marketing and PR Programme
Winner -JCI Sheffield
Certificate of Merit - JCI Cambridge

Most Outstanding Membership Recruitment Programme
Winner -JCI Manchester

Most Outstanding Social Project
Winner -JCI Southampton

Most Outstanding Regular Local Publication
Winner -JCI Boston
Certificate of Merit - JCI London

Most Outstanding Programme
Winner -JCI Portsmouth

Most Outstanding Current Member
Winner -Daniel Senter, JCI Sheffield

Most Outstanding New Member
Winner - Soraya Bowen, JCI London

Most Outstanding Trainer
Emma Eastwood, JCI Leeds

Most Outstanding Preparation by a Deputy President
Winner -Sandra Pilarczyk, JCI Sheffield
Certificate of Merit - Simon Bucknall, JCI London

Most Outstanding President
Winner -Sarah Beckwith, JCI London

Certificates of Recognition:
Chamber with 24-49 members:
Drew Charman, JCI Southampton

Chamber with 50-99 members:
Kate Senter, JCI Sheffield

Chamber with 100+ members:
Sarah Beckwith, JCI London

Most Outstanding Chamber
JCI Sheffield

CONFERENCE AWARDS
Extempore Competition
Tim Metcalfe, JCI Leeds

Public Speaking Competition
Phil Cavalier-Lumley, JCI Bradford

Debating Competition
Bradfield, Phil Cavalier-Lumley (JCI Bradford), Anil Champaneri (JCI Leeds) & Dan Senter (JCI Sheffield)

Best individual debater
Dan Senter, JCI Sheffield

DISCRETIONARY AWARDS
Most Outstanding Leader
Jen Little, JCI Cambridge
Tracy Anderson, JCI Boston

Most Oustanding Legacy
Adam Woodhall

Most Outstanding Senator
The British Senate

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Barnsley Law Society threw down the gauntlet to JCI Barnsley to beat them at their own quiz in aid of Children in Need so 6 of us arrived at Chilli in Barnsley with enthusiasm and our winning caps on. Unfortunately that is where the word "winning" disappeared! With 6 rounds, 1 including a legal round and no sport round we were doomed from the start. We had taken our secret weapons, 1 sports journalist and 3 other's with a keen interest in sport, and a reality tv/celebrity/twitter obsessive but this was useless!!!

To be fair, whoever wrote the quiz must have set out to pick the most obscure, weird and difficult questions ever as out of 40 points available, no-one in the room scored more than 15 so we didn't feel too bad when we scored 14 and 12.

There was plenty of laughter at the lack of knowledge of everyone in the room, and the drinks and cheesy puffs were flowing and it was for charity so at the end of the day, that's what matters!

Roll on the Wharfedale Quiz in 2012 when the questions seem to be easier to answers!!!

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On a rather warm November night 5 JCI Barnsley members and 1 JCI Boston member = JCI Bosley, got wrapped up to brave the elements, only to find it was a dry and mild night! The night started off with coloured sparklers and giant sparklers as every good November 5th should, in front of the huge bonfire.

Fair ground rides and stalls were encouraging punters in, the smell of hot dogs and pie and peas wafted around the field whilst the DJ played pure cheese and 80s music! The firework display was brilliant, with the usual ooooooooo's and ahhhs from the crowds for the 20 minute display. It was all over too soon for another year and will definitely be in our calendars again for next year.

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A plate of fish and chips, a room full of JCI members and a very large vat of sarcasm, name calling and likenesses to elephants, mix it all together and you get this year's Vicious Circle competition! This year the theme had been set; "An elephant never forgets" and our 4 guest speakers, Catherine Berry, Yorkshire RGC for 2011, Lisa Price of JCI Sheffield, Phil Cavalier-Lumley of JCI Bradford and JCI Barnsley's Richard Grange took to the stage to give us their spin on this.

The lovely Sandra Pilarcyzk, Deputy President from JCI Sheffield was our MC for the evening and she certainly took charge, kept us all in our places and made sure we all knew that next year she wants to be first in line to be a speaker!

Catherine was up first and had clearly done her research into elephants as she explained their traits, and the similarities to her fellow speakers!

Lisa told us the price of her fellow speakers, ranging from a night in with Richard costing just £5 to trading in your old motor for a Cavalier Lumley for £20, and closing with an evening with Lisa is Priceless.

Vicious Circle virgin speaker Phil entertained the room with thoughts on how we should pass on our wisdom and thoughts to our children like elephants do!

Richard provided us with the animal awards ceremony, selecting members of the audience to receive his home made trophies of spray painted animal toys. He provided the audience with a very, ermmm, creative video, including roping in his friend Dave to recreate their own Geordie charity advert!

At the end of the 4 speeches, the votes were counted and our very own Richard Grange was triumphant in winning the Vicious Circle trophy. The night was a huge success with attendance up by nearly 30% and we also raised £53 for our charity, BIADS. I‘m now off to apologise to all the toy shops in Barnsley for the odd man who bought up all the miniature animals and scared away the kiddies!

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This year the Annual Wharfedale Quiz took on a new and mobile slant, taking place as part of the JCI Barnsley Train Pub Crawl. As 2010 quiz winners, JCI Barnsley laid on a traditional style Pub Quiz, with a round at each of the tried and tested pub stops along the Sheffield to Huddersfield train line. Combining the quiz and train pub crawl was a great idea and attracted members new and old from Boston , Leeds, Doncaster and Barnsley .

The competition was hotly contested with the Dingbats round proving pivotal as Leeds ' Emma Eastwood wiped the floor with the other teams. The winning team was announced over a relaxed Italian meal in Huddersfield - so next year we'll be off to Leedscaster for the 2012 Wharfedale Quiz. We'll leave it up to Leeds and Doncaster to decide who gets the honour for being our hosts!"

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By Richard Grange

All hail the ale! Was the cry as JCI Barnsley rolled on up to Magna in Rotherham for the White Rose Beer Festival a four day event that showcases beer from across the Country, Europe and the World

So we started nice and local in the West Yorkshire Room mainly because the it was the first room we came to, plus it was the room where the barrel we sponsored was. After a few photos and a couple of Anger Yanks (this isn't a euphemism, it's the name of the beer we sponsored) we made our merrier way over to the South Yorkshire room which also covered ciders and world beers, we made camp here and started to trial the many hundreds of beverages the festival had to offer (drink responsibly).

After a few local beers we started to move further a field in our consumption to the toad brewery and they creatively titled "The Da Vinci Toad" which the photo of Gemma will speak a thousand words of how it tasted, we then moved on to an International flavour enjoying some fruit beers from Poland ( I'm assured that they count as one of your five a day) and the rather tasty and potent cider champagne. We then took the weigh off our feet and caught a spot of folk music(!), now I don't want anyone for a second to think that I got bored doing the write up for this event it just the details at this point start to become a little .....vague I'm pretty sure some chips and a taxi were involved.

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