Category: General News

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.

We held our second practice session on Friday afternoon, run by Terry, another great success with Terry fielding lots of questions on techniques, etc.

Florence was also given an outing with John and Stuart, still much to learn!

For photos of the session go to Practice session 26th April 2024

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.

Last night members were invited to a practice session, 18 members booked a place, the session was run by Terry, along with 5 helpers – Ann, John, Pat, Stuart and Phil. The purpose was it let members learn about aspects of the game and practise their bowls without the contraints of the normal sessions when we play as teams.

It was a very successful evening, enjoyed by all who attended. It is planned to have another in about 4 weeks time that will concentrate on playing technique’s and other aspects of the game.

Photographs can be found at Practice session 22nd March 2024

Just a posting to show the full house we had last Monday, another one today. See you at Todays session.

Just a quick posting to congratulate the members of the Calne team who finished 4th in the league, certainly an improvement on 2022/23 5th position.

Having entertained Marshfield at Calne and lost 17-52 (0-9pts), we were doubtful of getting anything, however whilst we lost 23-50, we managed to win 1 rink 13-9 so we got 2 of the 9 points going. Congratulations to Les, Phil and Pat. I am led to believe that Marshfield needed 4 pts to qualify for the finals, so they were happy. As soon as the final league is published I will update the website, we are hoping not to be bottom as we were last year.

Well done to all who played in games, next year who knows!!

47 members and partners attended the Annual Presentation Lunch at the North Wilts Golf Club yesterday.  As usual the food and service was very good and everyone appeared to have a good time.

We did the second draw of the year for the 50/50 club that raises £150  each year for charity.  The numbers were drawn by Ro Smith and Ro managed to pull her own number out of the bag to win the first prize of £17, with the second prizes of £8 going to Mayumi Lewis.

Presentations were made and the recipients were as follows – Ladies first of course:

Top Attendance:

Ladies – Mary Edwards

Men – Phil Milham

Top Player:

Ladies – Pat Watson

Men – Phil Milham

Players’ wooden spoons:

Ladies – Sharon Burton

Men – Stuart Beard.

We did the second draw of the year for the 50/50 club that raises £150 each year for charity.  The numbers were drawn by Ro Smith and Ro managed to pull her own number out of the bag to win the first prize of £17, with the second prize of £8 going to Mayumi Lewis.

Many thanks to all those who brought raffle prizes, also those that organised it – a magnificent £148 was raised for our charity fund (chosen charity recipients will be decided as normal at our AGM in November).

Our Secretary Stuart Beard was then presented with an Honorary Lifetime President award by John Harris,, on behalf of the committee and the members, and his wife Pip was presented with a bouquet.

For more photographs please go to Annual Presentation Lunch 24th February 2024

Not a good week, after losing to Crudwell on Tuesday we took on Marshfield on Friday evening, unfortunately we lost 2 rinks heavily 4-17 and 2-17, however on a lighter note we managed 2 close games losing only by 6-9 and 5-9. Only 1 game left and that is on Tuesday 27th February at Marshfield.

On a very wet evening, we received a warm welcome from the home team. Unfortunately the evening did not go our way, losing the first half on both rinks 3-11 and 4-16. So there was a lot to do in the second half unfortunately we did no better in the second half, with Crudwell having a hot shot (6) to win 4-24 on one rink, however the other rink led by Les went to the last end, it was all even at 7-7 when they went into the last end, we were 1 up with Geoff (Crudwell) to bowl his last wood and unfortunately he took the end, so anothe rink down, but only 7-8, well done Les, Phil and Mayumi, commiserations to Nick, Carol and Terry, but congratulations to Crudwell, the final score 19-59 (0-9pts). The Calne team adjusted well to a level floor and the mat speed. Lastly many thanks to Crudwell for the half time refreshments.