Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
TWO of the island’s great expat institutions have made swift changes at the top in recent months.
The Dilmun Club has just parted company with 29-year-old Glaswegian Chris Friel, once voted as one of the ‘top 20 barmen in the world’ by a leading UK men’s magazine.
The Dilmun Club, with a current membership of more than 1,500 people of various nationalities, will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in two years’ time.
Chris follows in the footsteps of fellow general manager Mark Beardsell, 55, a former army officer, who was given his marching orders from the esteemed neighbouring Bahrain Rugby Club after a short-lived tenure.
He had been commissioned to help ‘grow the club’ but didn’t last much past its own week-long 40th anniversary celebrations.
Members of the executive committees of both clubs have told The Whisperer that the position of general manager is one of the toughest managerial posts to fill in the hospitality industry.
One challenge in particular is keeping the demanding customers happy. Unlike in the hotel trade, where the task is to ensure a stay is memorable for all the right reasons over a period of probably, at most, a fortnight, a members club has to keep them smiling week in and week out, for as long as they stay on the island.
It’s a bit like working for GulfWeekly!
