Calne Bowls Club

Whilst the rinks have been open for practice, due to competitive games starting this week. On Saturday morning chairman Barry Wicks officially opened the green,  using a set of woods bearing the initials BW. It must be pointed out that these were not his woods but they had belonged to a past bowler of Calne Bowls Club named Bramwell Watson and were over 100 years old. Bramwell managed to win the County Singles title in 1938 and was a member of the county 4’s winners in 1934, as well as winning the Calne Men’s singles 16 times over the period 1921 – 1961. Apparently when he started playing, he and a friend could not afford to buy a set of woods each so they bought this set of woods between them and shared them! Bramwell’s wife was Rose Watson and whilst he was bowling she did all the catering for the club. Their daughter Pauline played for the club and was a founding member of the Calne Ladies’ Club.  Pauline also proved to be a good bowler and won several club competitions as well as County competitions, becoming County 2 wood singles winner in 1998 and eventually Wiltshire Ladies’ President in 2000.

The woods bowled very well on Saturday, although much lighter than modern bowls as they are of course made of wood, and Barry was able to get near the jack with his first wood.

Below are  2 photos of Bramwell’s honours, and his woods, along with a picture of Pauline Watson.  Saturday’s photo’s follow.

Whilst the official opening day is the 23rd April 2022, the first roll-ups are today.

So a big thank you to all those who have worked tirelessly for the last 2 weeks getting the club ready.Below is a gallery of those workers, including some short matters who were holding a meeting in the Pavilion at the same time, it does not include everyone, but apologies if you are not included.

No captions but plenty of smiles!!!

Thanks to all of the hard work of the above members,seriously bowling commenced on Tuesday 19th April, with the men’s and ladies Tuesday’s teams.with over thirty members taking part, everyone had a great afternoon which was only interrupted by tea and biscuits, unfortunately the weather was not so kind to us but we did not have any rain.

The evening was a great success, thanks to Yvonne, Steve for setting the questions, Pip for the food, Rita for managing the raffle and finally to Les for being everywhere and setting up – washing up – setting out and compering when needed.

Many thank to all who turned up and made it so much fun, not only members but friends.

We managed to raise approx £200 for the club, ensuring that the event will be repeated.

Hear are some photos, with apologies as the camera has not ended it life!!!

On Saturday 26^th March the Ladies held there pre-season bowls meeting.

Babs Salter (Secretary) Bowls Ladies Wiltshire was invited to give a talk to our members on County games, and encouraged members to enter county competition’s.

The attendance was brilliant and members were all thanked for attending, and welcomed our new members who had joined the club.

We hope that all ladies will enjoy their full packed season of games whether it be friendlies, or league games.

Yvonne brought some samples of new the shirts and jackets, which the ladies all agreed that they will look good.

Our Club Secretary Les, and his wife Ange, will be taking part in a local production.  At our club we make no secret of our desire to be community involved so below are some pictures that speak for themselves……..

…….and tickets are still available – phone 07733 231735

Which is which though?

So it’s the second month of the year, virtually all the fixtures for the coming season have been decided and are now shown on the Website.

Final confirmation of the green opening and public open days will be confirmed at the February committee meeting.

Good news for our Lady Captain Yvonne, whe has accrued the required points to be added to the BWL register of County players, well deserved.

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This year this event had to be postponed due to the weather on the 27th November, however all being well it looks like the sun will be out tomorrow and Calne Bowls Club will be running its Tombola stall as usual.

We look forward to meeting as many of the public as possible and raise some funds for the club as we are looking to replace our 1947 pavilion which has served us well since 1947 I believe, if you know different please get in contact, always eager to get any historic facts about the club.

Well, the event took place and thanks to the support of the people of Calne we raised £475, well done.

Many thanks to all the members who have taken part in getting everything ready, in particular Yvonne and Steve McColl who did all the organising.