Benfleet Bowls Club

A Little Club with a Big Heart

This interesting newspaper article was written in April 1983 by Eric Redgewell for World Bowls Magazine and comes to us via Denise Neale.

S. Benfleet Club’s aid to charities

“Situated on the Thames Estuary on the gateway to Canvey Island is the South Benfleet Bowling Club, formed just after the war in 1946 with 25 members. Membership is now 100, 28 ladies and 72 men. Although in terms of years the club is fairly new, success has started to come along. In 1980 they won the Essex Group 6 Championship, losing on shot difference in 1981 and again being runners-up in 1982. Successful tours have been arranged to the Isle of Wight, Dorset and West Wales. Ayrshire is being visited this year.

Although small in size, the club is big in heart as a number of local charities have found out. In 1981 the Year of the Disabled, the club decided to hold a bowling event to raise money for charity. A Sub-Committee worked out a simple but effective money-raising scheme incorporating a competition for the individual bowler. The idea of a Charity Marathon Bowl was born, with play commencing at 10am on Saturday, July 4th and ending at noon on Sunday, July 5th; 48 members took part, obtaining sponsorship for each hour they bowled. Some were ladies, two of whom bowled for 20 hours. Records were kept of the shots ‘for’ and ‘against’, with bonus points for each hour played.”

The complete article is available to read below. Please click on the article to enlarge the image.

Article as published in World Bowls - April 1983 edition
Article written by Eric Redgewell

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