Chew Stoke Bowling Club
Big Bowls Weekend - Open Day
Saturday 24th May Chew Stoke held their Open Day as part of Bowls England's Bowls Big Weekend.
Although the weather could have been better, it remained largely dry but quite windy.
A number of members and newcomers enjoyed a cooked breakfast at the club with many claiming that they wouldn't need to eat again that day.
The clubhouse sported new colours of pink, yellow and green and several club members were available to give advice to potential new bowlers.
Being in the country and close to Chew Valley Lake we do sometimes get a visit from the local aquatic birds. And today was no exception.
Rumours that they've been signed up to play the next game are entirely fictitious.
Pub Night
The annual (and now almost infamous) Chew Stoke Bowling Club pub night took place on Monday 30th June. This is when the club invites teams from various pubs in the Chew Valley to "have a go" at bowling and also spend as much money as they can in the club house on food and drink.
This year we had a record number of participating teams - 14 including two from Chew Valley School.
The format was simple with teams of four playing four games against other randomly selected teams.
Chaos was narrowly averted as our long suffering Rink Masters tried to control, encourage, support and guide 56 increasingly excited "bowlers", including one or two from the club who managed to blag themselves a game.
A number of participants had obviously played before and were keen to show their expertise to both their own team and the opposition.
They were largely ignored by all concerned but enjoyed imparting their wisdom nonetheless.
It's probably a good thing that we don't have floodlights as the games may well have carried on well into the night.
As it was games were finished by about 9.15 and everyone retired to the club house for more liquid refreshments (not that we had a lot left by then) and to hear the results.
Congratulations to Chew Valley School who managed to stay sober enough to collect their £50 winnings.
With special thanks to the following who gave up their spare time to help make the event a great success:
Rink Masters
Ali, Andy, Celia, Celia W, Drew, Georgie, John, Martyn, Steve and Trevor
Bar
Martin and Phil
Food
Carol and Gill
And the ones to blame for organising it all
Jamie and Louise
Also thank you to any names I've missed off - but you obviously didn't work hard enough
