Thanks to all who have renewed their membership and completed competitions forms. Just to confirm that the club competitions will kick off in June so if you haven’t already entered there should be plenty of time to find your bowls feet before entering. There will also be reminders throughout May and with a deadline announced. As in previous years we will allow entries to the four day-long competitions upto a few days before the actual event. All of these will be played in a round-robin format (not knockout) so everyone is involved for most of the day, the emphasis being on fun and social not just competition.

This year’s Open Days have been set for early May. Those unable to make them are also able to attend the weekly Club Night sessions. John will be doing his usual promotions in local shops & community places, etc. but please do spread the word. Flyers will be available to collect from the summerhouse in due course.

Finally, if you’ve got a spare couple of hours or so over the weekend of 28-29th please do pop down to help the greenkeepers clear the grounds.

We wrapped up our programme of winter socials at the weekend with a Murder Mystery play – Murder at the Baftas! Thanks and congratulations to Geoff & Co. for all their hard work in bringing something new to the club as well as raising a rather substantial amount for club funds! Rumours abound that Geoff is already penning another .. Murder at the Bowls Club!

 

It may not feel like it but summer is coming and with it the new bowls season. The annual Sign-up evening is this coming Tuesday 17th at 7:30pm. Membership and Competitions forms are on the website and will be available on the evening, and subsequently in the summerhouse. Following Bowls England protocol, we are asking members to provide some form of photo identification in the form of passport, driving license, blue badge, travel pass, etc.. Expired and scanned copies will also suffice. This is a one-off check so once done, that’s it .. it won’t be required for subsequent years.

A lightweight name badge will be ordered for everyone who joins, with no charge to the member. The plan is to place a subsequent order sometime in May after the Open Days. These have been scheduled for the evening of Friday 1st and daytime of Saturday 2nd May. Flyers and advertising are in hand and will be available nearer the time but please do spread the word. Don’t worry if you can’t make the sign-up evening, you can hand in forms at Club Night or forward them electronically.

Eileen has done a sterling job and sorted out all the seasons fixtures. As well as some familiar fixtures we have a couple of new ones – a home game with Wraysbury and a rather special visit to Windsor Great Park in early May for a match with the Royal Household. You can see all the fixtures and other key events at the usual place on the website .. Calendar. Fixtures booklets will also be available.

Some of you may already have noticed the changes taking place at the SSA. A new main entrance to the club has been finished with Womens toilets to the left. Also, wider doors have been fitted to the hall/pavilion entrance. Works affecting our existing rooms in the clubhouse have been delayed for various reasons but is due to commence by the end of the month. This will obviously impact us throughout the summer and we will have to improvise as best we can. The rooms have been cleared in readiness for rebuilding, with much of the contents either temporarily transferred to the summerhouse or disposed of. Check in for Tuesday Club Nights as well as sign-up for team games etc. will be available in or around the summerhouse.

The green has now been cut a few times and a new hedge planted behind the summerhouse but lots of other jobs are needed to be done. The official clear up of the grounds is scheduled for Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th so any help would be appreciated. The list of jobs will be made available but include such items as mat cleaning, rubbing down and repainting ditch markers and remaining benches; painting of rink markers (including 2m markers); applying preserver to summerhouse; moving of equipment to alongside summerhouse (to be out of sight!) and everyone’s favourite – weeding and path clearing! So if you can spare any time please do crack on or refer to Dennis.

Lastly, the minutes from the latest Committee Meeting are available online and will be pinned up somewhere in due course.

Due to unprecedented demand the Murder Mystery on 7th March is sold out. Thanks to everyone’s support .. we are considering further events in the future.

The next social event is this coming Tuesday 3rd Feb at 7:30pm .. Quiz Night with Gary as compere.

We have just a couple more winter socials before the bowls activities ramp up.

Gary is the compere for Quiz Night on Tues 3rd Feb 7:30pm and then we conclude with a new attraction courtesy of Geoff and his crew .. a Murder Mystery on Sat 7th March 7pm.

We are asking for pre-payment for this latter event – further details are available here .. Murder Mystery.

All the fixtures for the coming season will be available soon and published on Calendar and in the Fixtures booklet, which will be available at the signing-up evening. Here are a few key dates to look out for ..

Tue 3rd Feb – Quiz Night

Sat 7th Mar – Murder Mystery

Tues 17th Mar – Membership sign-up

Sat 4th & Sun 5th Apr – Grounds clear-up

Sun 12th Apr – Green opens!

Fri 1st & Sat 2nd May – Open Days

A list of pre-season jobs is being drawn up and any help you can offer will be much appreciated either on the set working-party days or separately. Many hands make light work, or so they say!

The minutes from the latest committee meeting are available on the club noticeboard and here .. Committee Meeting

Finally, the Cricket Club have an upcoming event in March, a Comedy Night, full details here .. Cricket Club News

It was a good start to the year for DavidC winning the first event of 2026 at the winter social on Tuesday He snuck under the radar nicely and won Slippery Ann by a fair margin in a field of 24 players. Next month sees a Quiz Night on Tuesday 3rd Feb 7:30pm.

Ticket sales have now opened for the Murder Mystery on 7th March so please get in touch if you fancy coming. Geoff and the team will start rehearsing soon with some sessions booked at the club. All proceeds will go the Bowls club.

The World Indoor Bowls Championships commence soon with broadcasts available via YouTube and Facebook and the latter stages from the BBC.

As was alluded to in the previous bulletin, a Murder Mystery will be played out at the club in the new year. One of our more recent members, Geoff Buckingham, has very kindly offered to put on a play with all proceeds going to the club and with a prize going to the member of the audience who successfully identifies the murderer! Unfortunately it coincides with some building work to the overall club but the show will definitely go on so please add Saturday 7th March to your calendars. All members and family & friends are welcome – tickets are available at £12 including nibbles .. just get in touch by whatever means. Thanks also to Gary for acting as our liaison officer alongside Geoff.

The latest winter social this week saw a first for the club .. once we got the trial ends out of the way to iron out the rules, we had a very enjoyable evening of dominoes! Ann took the honours by the closest of margins just pipping JenC by a single point; Sandy wasn’t far behind in 3rd.

The next winter social is Slippery Ann on Tuesday 6th Jan 7:30pm. This card game is known by many names, Hearts being the more familiar and similar game, and is based on whist where players win tricks hoping they don’t contain a heart. All will be explained on the night and we’ll no doubt have a trial or two before the game proper. At the end of each round of games, two players move tables so you end up chatting to a range of folk, which perfectly encapulates the idea of the evening.

Other events at the SSA include a New Year’s Eve party – further details here .. SSA & Cricket Club News.

Some of you may be aware of building work taking place to the club over the winter. The start date isn’t yet confirmed but may be sooner than we thought. Our rooms will make way for new women’s changing rooms but we will get some shiny new rooms with access to the bowls green. As such we need to clear out our existing rooms so make sure you book January & February hols to avoid the working parties for this and other jobs that are needed before our bowls season starts!

Just to add to the confusing mix of county/national competitions, Bowls England have recently opened entry to some National championships. These are entered directly via the portal and not via the county associations and include such ones as Mens and Women’s over-60 singles and Mixed Pairs (the one entered via Middlesex are county-only competitions). Here is the link .. Bowls England Competitions 2026

That’s it for another year. Best wishes to everyone and particularly those in need of our prayers. Happy Christmas to you all .. look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

Come and see if you can chip out, or perhaps hit the deck, in the festive winter social on Tuesday 2nd December at 7:30pm. There’ll be a £5 entry fee to include a mini-buffet .. all are welcome including family & friends.

The bowls committee met up this week and digested some of the suggestions raised at the AGM. Payment by card will be trialled over the coming season allowing those who wish to pay by card rather than cash. This will be available at all events, including Club Night and team games. Name badges or names on shirts is under investigation. Minutes from committee meetings will be available on the noticeboard for the time being. More to follow soon, including a mystery in March!

We celebrated a good season for Sunbury Bowls at our annual Club Dinner and Presentation of Awards at Fulwell Golf Club on Friday. It cemented a successful season for Sandy, picking up four trophies in total after she was presented with the Club Night Women’s trophy for the second year running. With Simon also picking up the Men’s prize (for the third time) it ensured the pair went home with a box load of silverware! The main club trophy was awarded to Maggie for her dedication to the upkeep of the garden and grounds.

David Chatterton, our retiring Club Secretary, was honoured for his dedication to the club but will continue to feature at the club despite words that hinted otherwise! Sandy was confirmed in the role at the AGM. Many thanks to all involved in organising the dinner and to our compere Gary. Also to Cassie for organising the programme, etc.. for the last time.

Some memories from the evening are available here .. Club Dinner 2025

The club AGM on the 11th recapped on the year and raised a few items of note .. we are keeping afloat but the priority is the green; further consideration of cashless options; name badges for shirts; publishing of minutes; work to the front of the building over winter; safeguarding changes; recruitment of more greenkeepers. More information to follow over the coming months.

Lastly, our final official get together of the year is on Tues 2nd December from 7:30pm.

The next of our winter socials takes place on Tuesday 4th Nov. It’s an evening of Bingo with Neil hosting .. eyes down at 7:30pm!

The AGM season is nearly here and we have our own Bowls Club one on Tuesday 11th 7:30pm. All members are invited to hear of the latest developments and put forward suggestions and questions. Following on is the Sunbury Sports Association (SSA) AGM on Thursday 27th 7:30pm with all members welcome.

Our annual bowls Club Dinner and Presentation of Awards takes place on Friday 21st at Fulwell Golf Club. Please arrive from 6:30pm for a 7pm start. Any queries about payment to our Treasurer Barry with any raffle prizes appreciated on the night.

We recently kicked off the monthly winter socials with an evening of skittles. Congratulations to the winning team of Alan, Eileen, Karen, Kath, Mike & NeilF and thanks to our compere, David, for keeping us all in order. The socials take place on the first Tuesday of each month, so next up is Tues 4th Nov 7:30pm (theme to be confirmed, but maybe Bingo!). November will be a busy month as we have our AGM on Tues 11th 7:30pm and our annual Club Dinner and Awards Evening on Fri 21st at Fulwell Golf Club.

The green is looking pretty green with new grass showing, in fact it’ll need cutting soon! Fingers crossed that the scarecrow and bird-scarer do their jobs. The hedges have also been cut so let’s hope they don’t grow back quite as well as the grass!

The long-overdue updates to the Honours Boards are taking shape. One board has now been installed with comments/suggestions invited.

For those of you wishing to test yourselves beyond social roll-ups or our own club competitions there’s an array of county and other competitions available. Some need to be entered by the end of the month, others are less pressing. Here’s a short guide to how it all works .. County Competitions. I’m happy to field any queries in the first instance.

Lastly, switching to the SSA club scene, tickets are now on sale for Groove Manoova on Sat 15th November with their funky disco floor fillers.