Cookies

We use essential cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. These will be set only if you accept.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our cookies page.

Essential Cookies

Essential cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. For example, the selections you make here about which cookies to accept are stored in a cookie.

You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics Cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify you.

Third Party Cookies

Third party cookies are ones planted by other websites while using this site. This may occur (for example) where a Twitter or Facebook feed is embedded with a page. Selecting to turn these off will hide such content.

Skip to main content

Part 1- Message from Jon Cockroft- Bowls England Chief Executive

By info@wellingtonbowling.club Wellington BC

Thursday, 15 October 2020

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wellington Bowling Club Contributor

VIEW ALL ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR

JON COCKCROFT: A LETTER TO THE BOWLS ENGLAND COMMUNITY

As the winter woollies are dusted off, our radiators stir into life and the lawn gets a final cut, it’s timely to reflect on the 2020 bowls season. For some it never started, for others it was their first season. Some felt frustrated not to play competitively, others felt invigorated by a means of meeting up with friends. Nobody imagined a season like the one that is now drawing to a close, and our hearts go out those who have experienced personal loss from Covid-19.

Whatever your experiences and circumstances, I wanted to share a few thoughts on behalf of Bowls England. I am particularly eager to thank all those of you who had the energy and spirit to make the very best of this unusual season – the green-keepers, the sanitizer-buyers, the book-keepers, the bar staff, the coaches, the equipment cleaners and many more. You are the lifeblood of our sport and your efforts are appreciated. To all the players who made it out onto the greens, I trust you enjoyed being out in the fresh air, spending time with friends and renewing your challenge with the game. To those who didn’t play this summer, we will be here when you are ready to return.

Four months into the role of Bowls England Chief Executive, I am hugely positive and optimistic about what’s ahead for our sport. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Through adversity comes opportunity” and I believe it won’t be the adversity of Covid-19 that determines our destiny, it will be the manner in which we react to it.

In spite of the effects of Covid-19, this season has evidenced bowls’ capability and capacity to grow. Many clubs have seen an influx of new players as the way people consumed our sport changed. The Let’s Roll campaign has delivered hundreds of new club members and raised the awareness of our sport among thousands of prospective players. When we surveyed non-bowlers, 86% of people had heard of bowls and 37% of those would be interested in playing in the future. Most want to play for a couple of hours each week, many purely on a social basis. We have a massive opportunity to increase our participant base by enabling people to enjoy our sport in bite-sized chunks, complementary to their work and family commitments.

Furthermore, the global pandemic has forced us all to do things differently and, whilst that has sometimes been difficult, it has also been eye-opening. Remote working, more time spent locally, a greater focus on health and wellbeing and an increase in digital communications are some of the many changes to which we have all become accustomed. I believe bowls has to embrace these developments and try to take advantage of this new environment. Whether it be building on our wider use of technology to save the sport time and money or harnessing our natural strengths of being family-friendly, local, non-contact and relatively Covid-safe, let’s come together and make the best of it.

Contact Information

info@wellingtonbowling.club

Find Wellington BC

Corams Lane, Wellington, Somerset, TA21 8LL

DIRECTIONS

Additional Information

There is free parking in the Leisure Centre car park which is immediately adjacent to the Bowling Club. Wheelchair access is via the ramp at the corner of the green where Corams Lane joins Springfield Road.