The BW Charity Galas have been held for a number of years and have usually proved to be very popular. In recent years Swindon and Amesbury BCs have very kindly hosted the two events – one for the North and one for the South of the County.

This year the entries were very disappointing – only 9 clubs entered a team so, with the 2 enthusiastic Youth teams, this made a very awkward 11 entries – only 4 in the North area. However, Swindon BC very generously agreed to go ahead with the event despite the low numbers and the South area venue at Amesbury was organised with 7 teams in two sections and a creative draw to enable everyone to have the same amount of bowling.

The following accounts have been written by the two young bowlers who organised the Youth Teams so a big thank you to them both for their input – both as team Captains and as Reporters/photographers.

South Area – an account from Tom Warner

You can read Richard’s report here

Portugal Tour Report

Last night – April 9th – the Bowls Wiltshire Management Meeting was very well attended, with 41 of the 49 clubs represented. The meeting included reports from the P&E Officers and some very useful information for Clubs which was supplied by Howard Pryse and Hedley Bowen, both of whom are heavily involved in work for Bowls England as well as for BW. Adie Lloyd – IPP for BE – commented that BW Clubs are very fortunate to have this first hand expertise available to them and asked that we all support them in their work.

Richard Gardiner – BWM President

At the end of the Meeting the two BW Presidents received their medallions form Acting Chair, Roy Jones. June Corbett, BW Chair, had sent her very best wishes for the 2015 Season to the Presidents and all the bowlers of BW. Last year was good but let’s make this one even better!!

Joyce Little – BWL President

It seemed a bit like the end of term for the Roadshow Team today as we reached the fifth and final Roadshow to be held over the last two weekends. This time we were at Spencer Melksham BC and the room was relatively well filled with 9 Clubs represented. Again there was some lively discussion with some pertinent questions being raised and answered.

We are grateful to the Members of Spencer Melksham who provided hospitality and refreshments today.

The Team at Spencer Melksham

There will be an information pack available – hopefully in time for a copy to be distributed to every club at the Management Meeting. We hope that those clubs who sent representatives to participate will send in their Feedback Forms to help us to plan future programs to inform Officers and Members of BW about the processes and services which are involved in the running of your organisation.

June Corbett, BW Chairperson, thanked the members of the Roadshow Team for giving up a great deal of time to plan, prepare and present this information in the interests of helping Club Officers with their work.

After a busy weekend last week the Roadshow Team were in action again on Saturday morning 27th September. This time the venue was Chippenham Town and the attendance was more encouraging with two clubs who had been unable to attend last weekend making the effort to catch us this time around.

Our thanks to Chippenham Town for their hospitality.

The Presentations were switched round to allow Nigel to dash off to Swindon to run his first Coaches session of the Winter Season. There was plenty of useful discussion and all who attended were appreciative of the information and advice on offer. Equally, they contributed some very worthwhile ideas which BW can work on for the future.

The team at Chippenham BC

The final Roadshow takes place tomorrow – Sunday 28th September – at Spencer Melksham BC at 10am. If you have not caught us so far – or even if you have- please feel free to come along.

On Sunday 21st September the Roadshow team traveled to Swindon to stage two more presentations. This time for 20 Clubs in the North of the County which could potentially have meant 60 people attending so we split the day into two sessions to allow for a better discussion experience. As with the event at Salisbury the attendance was very disappointing but the actual presentations were very well received and those who took part were very appreciative.

The team at Swindon BC

We are very grateful to Swindon BC for hosting this day for BW and especially to Barry for the rolls at lunchtime!!

If your Club has not yet attended a Roadshow please join us at either Chippenham Town on Saturday 27th September at 10am or Spencer Melksham on Sunday 28th September at 10am – even if you are not one of the Clubs invited to these two venues. We would really like as many Club Officers as possible to hear the Presentations.

On Saturday 20th September the first of five Bowls Wiltshire Roadshows took place. We are very grateful to the members of Salisbury BC who gave up their time to host the event and provide refreshments.

The Roadshow Team – Gerald, Dave, Nigel, Dan, Sue & John

The idea was born earlier this year when the P&E Committee decided that there was a need to find a way to explain some of the Administrative processes involved in running a Bowls Club as part of Bowls Wiltshire. In particular the areas of Communication, Membership, Coaching and Umpiring were selected for inclusion. We appreciate that Club Officers are all volunteers and that they often need some help with the tasks they find themselves having to deal with so we decided to make it easy to attend a seminar by taking it to different areas of the County and inviting a manageable number of Clubs to send 3 Officers (suggested Secretary, Treasurer and Club Contact but any interested member could replace one of these if required) This was with the intention of facilitating a discussion which is not possible with a larger meeting.

The first one was successful on most of these counts although the attendance was a bit disappointing. Our thanks to those who attended and contributed to the very useful and informative discussions that took place.

We hope to have more Clubs represented at the next four events…

Sunday 21st September at Swindon BC at 10am & 2pm

Saturday 27th September at Chippenham Town BC at 10am

Sunday 28th September at Spencer Melksham BC at 10am

On Sunday August 17th the Annual BW Charity Galas took place at Swindon and Amesbury BCs.

The weather was a little changeable but did not interfere with the play.

At Swindon there were 7 teams which meant that the Competition had to be played in two sections – one of 3 and one of 4 teams. What a pity all our efforts could not persuade another team to enter! The section of 3 was won convincingly by the BW Nomads – a team made up of various random BW Officers and other willing participants!! The section of 4 was won by Chippenham Town so these two teams competed in the Final which turned out to be a very close affair which was only settled on the final end in favour of BW Nomads with the Rink losing 8-11, the Triple winning 14-9 and the Pair 15-13 to make a total of 37-33.

The Cup and cheque were presented to BW Chairperson, June Corbett and the team decided to return half of their winnings to the BW Benevolent Funds for whom these Galas are played.

We are very grateful to Swindon BC for hosting this Gala and to all the hard working members – led by Barry Wheeler – who made the day so enjoyable while raising money for the Benevolent Funds.

We must also thank PEARCE FUNERAL SERVICES for their sponsorship of the Gala.