Woodlands Park Bowling Club

**Stop Press** 

OPEN DAYS 2025

Following the phenomenal success of last year's open days where we saw 70 visitors attend across the two days resulting in 20 new members joining the club. We are pleased to announce that we will be holding two Open Days again this year on Sunday 4th May and Bank Holiday Monday 26th May. 

The days are open to all - any age and ability. You just need to wear flat soled shoes/trainers or plimsolls. The days start at 12:00 noon through to 4pm. The club coach will be there along with other members to guide you through the various steps in learning to bowl. 

Here are some of the comments from last year's visitors and new members:

"The open days were great fun, well organised and led us into enjoying a sport we had not even considered taking up!"

"Alex’s patience and support in the coaching sessions available was an amazing bonus"

"Always made to feel welcome as newbies"

"Made some lovely new friends"

"The focus is on fun and enjoying the game"

"Great prices for tea/coffee and in the well-stocked friendly bar!"

"Competitions to enter if you choose to"

"Lots of friendly games during the season home and away"

"Other members always offered encouragement and tips to improve your game"

"Plenty of social events organised throughout the year to allow you to get know other members"

"Reasonable price of roll-ups and practise sessions to improve your skills"

"Opportunities to get involved in organisation/maintenance of the club"

A review from Google

"Lovely bowling club. The members are very friendly and welcoming. Open days in May each year to allow anyone interested (young or older) in giving Lawn Bowls a go. The clubhouse has a bar and social events are held regularly in a very friendly atmosphere"

Photos from the open days can be found in the Gallery. Photos from some of our other matches and social events are there too.

Woodlands Park Bowling Club is a vibrant community, supported by its members and keen to embrace anyone who is looking for new sport or just wants to be part of a community. Don't forget we are here all year, with both an outdoor and an indoor season, as well as regular social events. 

Anyone is welcome to join us on our Monday afternoon "roll-up" sessions at just £1 per session from 1:45pm to have a go (or another go) before deciding to join. 

Our coach Alex, will be running free coaching sessions throughout the season for all of our new members (or existing members wanting to improve any areas of their game). 

The open days proved that there are a lot of people out there who would like to take up a sport, meet potential new friends and become part of a community, something that has been sadly lacking in recent years. 

***GREENKEEPING***

Work on the Green has progressed well, thanks to the efforts of the new Team. We have managed to remove much of the moss and have now over-seeded and aerated the whole Green with new fast germinating grass seeded that was recommended by a specialist contractor who visited to provide advice. So we will keep our fingers crossed that this does the trick and we will have fresh growth to start mowing in a couple of weeks.

***UPDATE ON VOLUNTEERS NEEDED****

We held our meeting on the 18th Feb and we are delighted to say that we had 9 volunteers for the new Greenkeeping Team which Andy Nailor has kindly offered to coordinate. A WhatsApp group has been created and we have already spent several hours on and around the Green, starting a much needed Spring "rejuvenation". Pictures in the Gallery. 

Well done to the new team and thanks also to the regular Tuesday Maintenance Group, that continues to do great work. We hope that we can continue the work (weather permitting) and get the Green into a better condition than last year, before the start of the Season. We have learnt a lot already and are getting to grips with the use of the equipment. We need to ensure that as many of the team as possible learn the correct use of the equipment, Mowers, Scarifiers, Tiners, etc. so that we have a pool of people to draw from. This is going to be vital to continue the improvement of the condition of the green and help to enhance everyone's enjoyment of the game.

***PRESENTATION DAY****

With the final game of the season played, we held our annual Presentation Day on Sunday 29th September. The day consisted of a short game organised by our Ladies Captain, Eileen, followed by a buffet tea, compliments of the Club and then the presentations themselves. This year's competitions were fiercely fought, as always, but it was great to see some of our "newbies" getting through to the later rounds and one or two significant wins by newer players as well. Photos from the presentation day are in the Gallery and the Honours List to be updated soon.

Some of our bowlers spent a lovely week at Potter Resort recently and had success in their competitions, with Virginia winning the Target Bowls Medal and the team winning 3 out of 4 games. Photos also in the Gallery.

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** Newbies Vs Old Fogeys - The challenge was accepted and the more experienced Fogeys were victorious with a fairly emphatic win over the Newbies who equited themselves well. Perhaps this will become an annual fixture, until the Newbies can no longer qualify as "Newbies" and get upgraded to "Fogeys"

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15 of The "Newbies" as they have affectionately become known (19 new bowlers who joined this season), had their own internal competition on Monday 2nd September. The event, which was organised by Ladies Captain Eileen and supervised by Andy Anderson and Dave Fox, was a great success. 5 games of 5 ends in a 2 wood triples format. The teams, drawn at random and played in a round robin, scoring points for a win and additional points for all ends won. Congratulations to Lawrence, Mike and Gary for the overall win and to everyone for taking part.

I gather that the "Newbies" have now issued a challenge to the "Oldies" (apologies, no offence intended, referring to length of time bowling, not age) to set up another match for them to test their skills against the more experienced players. Photos from the Newbies comp in the Gallery.

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