Mint Casino Quiz Night

Mint Casino Quiz Night - 23rd September 2011

From Small things (Big Things One Day Come)

The above title of a song by Bruce Springsteen aptly reflects how I feel about the Quiz Night. The idea was brought to one of our meetings in August by Lion Stephen Pendlebury, who mentioned that the Mint Casino were looking to hold a Quiz Night with proceeds going to Bolton Lions Club.

After further discussions about how this would work, it was agreed we would provide a trophy for the winners, and would try to enter two teams.

Obviously as this is the first time for the Quiz, we did not know how many people would turn up, but we calculated we might make £100 to £200. In the Lions meeting before the quiz, Lion Stephen gave us a copy of the flyer they were sending out, which noted they were also having an auction.

On to the night, we did have two teams present to battle for the trophy! On arrival, we were the only people there (apart from Lion Stephen and his partner Dilys, who were the quiz masters), but soon people started coming and coming and coming! In the end the room was full and there were almost 60 people doing the Quiz.

Whilst Dilys was marking the Quiz, I then was asked to be the auctioneer, which was great fun, and a great deal of money was raised, culminating in having a bid of £170 for 2 people to attend the Manchester United versus Bolton game in January, with full corporate hospitality!

When Dilys returned with the results, the team I was in achieved a very creditable second place and we received a bottle of wine each (Courtesy of Mint Casino).

The pictures above show the presentation of the monies raised by the Casino to myself and Lion Jim Wells, with a staggering £750 raised which is going to our Christmas Appeal, to help underprivileged children.

As I said at the start ' From small things, one day big things come!'

Thanks to Dilys and Lions Stephen for providing the Quizzes and comparing the evening, as well as the Mint Casino, and also the two teams of Lions who attended the evening. (I won't give you the other Lions teams quiz position, so as no to embarrass them!).

I look forward to next year's Quiz.

Lion John Crompton

23rd November 2011

Fundraising Collection

We held a fundraising collection on Thursday 22nd September at the Asda supermarket in Astley Bridge. Evidence of the economic downturn was shown by the numbers passing through the doors.
One of the features of the day was the late appearance of John Poulsom which meant that Tony Foster had to go into extra time. Tony managed to contact John just as he was about to mow the lawn. On his arrival it was pointed out to John that this action, preferable though it may be to standing like a muppet outside a supermarket, would result only in collecting grass, not money, which was the aim of the exercise. His excuse was that he'd got his diary mixed up, but popular opinion has it that he just couldn't stand the thought of spending two hours in my company. There a lot of people who belong in that category, so we'll go with that as the likely explanation.

The amount raised was £216.89 which under the circumstances was a reasonable total. The circumstances  being, not the recession, but the prolonged bout of banter which took place when Babu Roye and Ron Eadie came to take over from John and I, which rather distracted us from the task in hand. Otherwise I'm sure we'd have passed £300.

Ray Stafford

Canopy Sale

On Thursday 8th September we held a sale of bric-a-brac and clothes at the canopy in Bolton town centre square. It was a dismal day, the kind that makes you want to stay in and that's what most of the sensible citizens of  Bolton did. There was a good turn-out of Lions which meant that quite often we outnumbered the customers, and we took to going on the other side of the stalls to give the illusion of feverish activity, in a bid to attract customers. Because rules would not allow us to park our vehicle on the town square, we had to unload all of our merchandise at the start, and with numerous Lions in attendance it was like the proverbial "sardines in a can", under the canopy.  Lion Jim Wells, ICOB(in charge of books) had to take evasive action to stop the books on his stall from becoming pulp with the driving rain determined  to seek them out. Despite the conditions the Lions stuck manfully, or should that be lionfully, to the task and an amount literally described as £366.17 by our treasurer, John Fairhurst,was raised. Not for the first time, the clothes section made a splendid contribution to the total. Amongst the bric-a-brac there were a few breakages but the customers were distinctly reluctant to pay for them, especially as we were responsible for them(the breakages not the customers).

Our next canopy will be in the new year but we are in desperate need of more bric-a-brac so please contribute what you can.

Bolton Street Collection

Bolton Street Collection - 11th June 2011

Saturday morning at 8AM in the morning was cloudy and overcast, but then it is June in England, so what do you expect? Anyway I was up bright and early to participate in our annual street collection in the centre of Bolton. I arrived in plenty of time for the 9AM start, and settled into my usual position outside WH Smith.

The number of donations you receive always seems to be higher the earlier in the day it is, which I think is due to how visible you are. Although there are less people around at first, the benefit is that you can be seen more easily. This year however, our Activities Chairman Tony Foster had a cunning plan - fluorescent bibs!

The effects of the increase in visibility were definitely seen, as although donations fell away after about 11.30AM (as normal), the amount raised from the collection was the highest since 2005, when I started keeping records of our takings.

In addition, my bucket had the highest collection figure of all Lions collecting on the day, which is a first!

Thanks to the people of Bolton for being so generous, and to the Lions who collected.

Lion John Crompton
29th September 2011

Burnden Park Asda

Asda Burnden Park Collection - 4th and 5th June 2011

Our first event in June, was 2 days at the above store, with our collection buckets, as demonstrated in the photograph to the right, by Lion Babu Roye.

My first shift was the late slot (3PM to 5PM) on the Saturday, in the company of Lion Ron Eadie. I think it is fair to say that we both enjoyed our stint, helped by being very busy, and by Ron's aim to try to get a lion's sticker on every child who passed. We also gave away plenty of stickers to older children as well! A great deal of happy banter ensued between the public and Ron and myself.

On the following day I again did the late slot, this time with Lion Babu, the difference in the two days being that the Sunday was much quieter in terms of people in the store, but it was still reasonably busy.

Two things stood out from the Sunday collection, firstly it always amazes me the number of people who try to get in the store within ten minutes of it's closing, (there were still some people trying to get in with about 2 minutes before it closed!), the second is that we were kept company for about an hour by 2 children and their father, who were waiting for the mother to finish shopping in the store.

The reason for the shopping expedition, was that it was the Birthday of one of the children, and the Mother was getting a cake. As a Birthday treat we gave the child about a dozen stickers!

Thanks to all the lions who did a 2 hour slot, and to Asda for letting us in their store, and to their customers who contributed.

Lion John Crompton

28th September 2011

Sponsored Walk

Sponsored Walk - 8th May 2011

On the following day after the Vegas Night at Dunscar, the Lions were in action again, this time meeting at Barlow Institute Edgworth for a Sponsored Walk.

Luckily we did not meet until 1.30PM, so I could have a lie in after the Vegas night. The walk was to raise proceeds for our President's Appeal - which was improving access for disabled people at St Paul's Church, Astley Bridge, and several walkers

from their Church met us at the Car park.

We had been promised by our walk leader, Lion Tony Murphy (who can be spotted in one of the photographs), stunning panoramic views of Winter Hill, Peel Tower and beyond. Being a Lion, he was true to his word!

The weather was kind to us, although rain threatened later on in the walk, it stayed away.

Thanks go to Lion Tony for leading the walk, and all those who participated, I am looking  forward to next years walk already.

Lion John Crompton
21st September 2011

Dunscar Golf Club

Dunscar Golf Club - 7th May 2011

I will direct you straight to the photograph's of one our excellent Casino Night's held at Dunscar Golf Club. A picture can say more than a thousand words, so that is 3000 words saved!

On the night we ran a roulette table, 3 blackjack tables, 2 poker tables and 2 other smaller card games, which catered comfortably for the 60 people who attended the golf club's event.

A fantastic night was had by all who attended (even
us Lion's!), with food being provided at the table, to ensure nothing got in the way of the gambling!

Several millionaires were made during the evening, unfortunately the money used is not real but our own funny money, which can only be used up on the Auctions held during the evening.


It did lead to a bid of several million pounds for some bottles of beer from the Bank Top Brewery, which were apparently enough to buy the Brewery itself.



If you require details of our Casino Nights (for a reasonable fee), please contact this website.


Lion John Crompton

7th July 2011

Canopy March 2011

Oh we do love to be on the canopy!

Bolton Canopy - 12th March 2011

It was an early start for me on a Saturday Morning, having to be in Bolton at 8.30AM, to unload the boxes of stuff from the van, for our first white elephant canopy on a Saturday.

As you can see from our photographs we had plenty of book and clothes, as well as records and other assorted bric-a-brac.

As usual I was amazed at what people were buying, but I suspose what I might consider to be rubbish and not worth buying, is useful and has value for another person - it certainly seemed so on the day.

Yet again, we had fun trying to sell strange objects with little perceived value. The prize for best selling technique going to Lion Tony Murphy, who when asked the question 'Have you got anything religious?' in mid afternoon, tried to sell a very unflattering green coloured vase that looks like a radiator. Needless to say he was not successful.


My daughter bought some LP's (even though at that point we did not have a record player!), but the covers do look good on her wall. Thanks also to Lion Tom Slattery for buying her a hockey stick, which will come in useful as protection when she goes to college!

Thanks to all Lions and ladies who were there on the day.

Lion John Crompton

6th July 2011