2022 Review by Richard Newby

Market Bosworth Bowling Club – 2022

2022 has been a remarkable year for the Bowling Club. There has been all the highs and lows of competitions, but the pride of place goes to our four ‘Bosworth Belles’, Loraine Hibbins, Ann Jones, Jeanette Smith and Belinda Chantler who represented the club so fantasically well, by not only winning the Leicestershire County ‘Senior Fours’ competition but also going on to represent the County at the National Finals at Royal Leamington Spa. It is with great credit that they won 3 games, progressing to the Semi-Finals, but here, although playing really well, they met their match against Lincolnshire. They were also runners up in the Leicestershire county 'Open Fours' and also played at Leamington being knocked out, in a close game, by the eventual winners. Well done, Ladies.

The season started back in mid-April with a quiz evening and some bingo in the clubhouse followed the next day with the first go on the pristine Green.

Bowling now began in earnest with teams being raised for all the Monday and Thursday leagues games and the Wednesday and Saturday friendly fixtures. Alongside these games we have several club competition days, most notably for the Jubilee Bowls Trophy. Although postponed due to the very inclement weather of Jubilee weekend we had a really good game. In the light of the recent sad news of the passing of our late Queen, the fact that we were able to celebrate her 70 year reign takes on a greater significance of that day.

One of our on-going quests is to increase our membership. To this end we held a successful Open Day in early May and followed with weekly Open Green sessions on Tuesday afternoons. These proved really popular and have resulted in a many of new members.

However, we are not all about serious competitive bowling and we have looked to develop a social approach to spending time at the club and on the green. We have had three groups of visitors this year, Gopsall WI, West Leicestershire U3A and the Staff from The Market Bosworth School.

A new development this year has been the weekly Friday Night Socials, where members and non-members alike are welcome to come and have a go and sample the delights of David Linney’s excellent BBQ.

Life and times at the Club are not always long hot summer days. It was therefore very sad that we learnt, that one of our long-standing members had passed away, following a period of ill-health. John Dagley, together with his wife Janet, had been a member for over 30 years. He was a staunch supporter of all that the Club and bowls have to offer. He was our President in 2011 and later President of Bowls Leicestershire and led a very successful County Bowls Tour to the South-West. He was captain of our Hinckley & District League ‘B’ Team for many seasons and was still fully involved right up until his death. He will be greatly missed at the club. Our thoughts and condolences go to his wife, Janet, and his family.

As the year moved into September, the shortening days meant that the darker evenings provided the opportunity to hold one of our more popular events, ‘Owl Bowls’, where the rinks are marked with tea lights in Jam Jars and Touches used to locate the Jack. Teams competed for The John Hayes Trophy. The winners, though were not the team who demolished the most numbers of jam-jars, as John had done, when we last held this event pre-covid.