Category: General News

GREAT NEWS!!

Harris has been chosen as one of the 50 pigs to be shown at the Calne Heritage Centre for the entire month of October, alongside a retrospective of 50 years of the Calne Music and Arts Festival. The selected pigs include entries from community groups, one from each school, and a number of individual entries. Many thanks to all who helped create Harris, including our artist in residence Gill (who painted him), Pip (with help from her friend Jackie) who dressed him, Stuart’s daughter-in-law Emma who donated the cap, Phil M who supplied the WSMBA Hot Shot badge and Tina who has displayed him in her window this summer and Stuart who did the base!

He will be on show at club sessions ( and at special events in the future) for the next few weeks before his month of glory at the Heritage centre. Here is a reminder of how handsome he is.

After having a short break we will be having a practice session on Friday 13th Sept 2pm – 4pm.

Terry Brewer is organising this, so if you want to come and haven’t already informed Terry please let him know either in person, by email or phone.

Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible, it normally proves to be an enjoyable session, coffee and biscuits will be available so remember to bring your mugs.

Hi members this week on Wednesday 7th August at coffee time we held  the 5th draw in our 50/50 club. The winner was Mike Lewis and the Runner/up was Sue Whelan, please contact Ann to collect your winnings.

Well done to both of you

Well done to Dennis Barnett, Kay Dando and Les Fish for scoring a full 9 shots in today’s triples.

Their certificates were presented on Monday 5th August, congratulations.

Hi all, we have now finished our entry, Harris the Hogg, many thanks to Gill Howard for painting him, even though only his extremities are on display. Also to Pip for dressing him, he also has other features, such as a hot shot badge (thanks to Phil M.) a tattoo on his ear saying’ I love short mat bowls. As well as the club shield on each side.

He is sitting on a miniature short mat with a bowl and jack, we are planning to display him shortly in a window near you.

In addition to Harris, we are also entering a picture done by Phil M, celebrating 1974 with his memories or those that he can recall, peace to all!!!

Congratulations to our Phil for being presented with 2 medals for hot shots at the recent awards ceremony at recent WSMBA.

Well done Phil, very well deserved.

Whilst the Men’s league remains mostly unchanged, the Ladies have 2 new names at the top.

Mary Edwards has moved up from 2 to top spot having  been in the winning team 5 out of 7 games in May and Jilly Read in now up to second place having had a good run of wins, 3 out of 4 played.

Only one more league will be published and then the final positions will be announced at our annual luncheon in 2025.

We had the 4th draw of the year today, the result was as follows:

Winner – Dennis Barnett (£17)

Runner/ up – Angie Fish (£8)

Congratulations to you both.

We are now halfway through the season and as the qualifying number of games to take part in the competition is 40, only members who have played a minimum of 20 games are included, the top 5 for Ladies and Men are posted in the Members section.

Ladies, Carol is still leading the field , however following a good April Mary has leapt to 2nd place, we also welcome 2 new players in the top 5 –  Jilly and Jennie, well done ladies.

With regard to the Men’s section, Dennis is still leading the pack having lost only 7 of his 34 games. Otherwise there has been very little change except that we welcome Mike Lewis into the top 5.

There is no doubt that the practice sessions have proved worthwhile and players games are improving. Well done to all.

The Calne Mayor, Director of Council Services, Manager of the Leisure centre and Members of the club were there to welcome the new electric roller to the Club, Duncan Whitehead the M.D. of Whitehead Bowls let us know that all machines are named by his wife, hence we have become proud owners of number 275 Florence. Duncan gave an excellent demonstration of Florence’s capabilities.The roller makes it much easier and will enable more members of the club to help setting up and putting away. All that requires is experience and that will come in time. For example I had a chance to help yesterday afternoon, the first attempt with John was reasonably successful, the second mat went on without much trouble. The secret is to let the machine do the work and not try to force it. We are looking forward to many years with our Florence.

Many thanks to the Council and our anonymous Donors who made this possible, as well as our members who have given the Club so much support over the years and created a club to be proud of.

Photos can be found in 25th April 2024 Florence arrives at Beversbrook

Good news at last. Our new roller will be arriving at Beversbrook next Thursday 25th April at 2-30pm. It is an important step forward for the club as it means more members will be able to use it to put mats away and not just the current few. With regard to health and safety the committee has always felt that it was especially important to get an electric roller as rolling the mats away on the current manual one gets harder as the years go on.

Members are welcome to come and see its arrival and there will be training offered at that time for selected members so that we will know how to operate it safely from the start, other members can be trained later.

The club would like to thank Alison Robinson, Director of Council Services and Councillors who have made this possible by giving us the initial grant and also the anonymous donors who made up the balance. We are also pleased to confirm that Alison and the Calne Mayor (Robert Macnaughton) will be there to join us.

Beversbrook staff will also be on hand to assist in its settling in, a big thank you to them for their support over the years. We are now in our sixth year and the club continues to grow and retain its wonderful atmosphere, thanks to the members who regularly turn up to tackle our interesting/frustrating floor!!

Needless to say the camera will be there for photo opportunities.

On a slightly sadder note our old roller will be on its way to Marshfield S.M.B.C on the same day at about 5-30pm. This roller came from the Bournemouth Electric Bowls Club and was a condition of Beversbrook allowing us to use the hall, as our mats had to be mobile, it has served us well over the years and we wish it well at Marshfield.

The latest top five are posted in the members section.

In the Ladies league there has been a change at the top with unfortunately Sue having a difficult March and dropping to 6th, 2 ladies have had great months, Carol and Pat, 1st and 2nd respectively, well done.

In the Men’s league, Dennis is still proving that if you have a good lead, you are in with a good chance of winning the game, he remains in 1st place.
Well done to all.