Shipton Bellinger Short Mat Bowls Club

Winning members of the BBC, L-R Graham Browning, Roy Batterby, Paul England, Mike England, David Sperry, inset the same winning team in 2007.

Known as Bellinger Bowls Club (BBC for short), the club was formed in June 1998 with 6 members and now has 15, several from outside of the village. All the original members are still very active in the club.

We meet every Wednesday evening from 8.00 to 10.00 in the main hall at the Shipton Village Centre, Bulford Road. New members are very welcome and we encourage all age groups. Currently we have 2 players under 18 who are the bowlers of the future. Short mat bowls is one of the fastest growing indoor sports with 678 players in Hampshire and over 23,000 players registered nationally. Why not come along and give it a try. We have 3 mats so you are certain of at least 2 games and the first 2 visits are free.

We all thoroughly enjoy our weekly club nights, which have a regular attendance of 10 or more players. They are very relaxed and non-competitive. We also play friendly matches at other clubs both home and away.

The BBC is a very active short mat bowls club, participating in many tournaments.

We have 5 members regularly playing for Hampshire County including our youngest member Paul England who plays for the County Premiership team and also plays for the Hampshire Under 18 team and the England U18 team. On 19^th April he is playing for England in the first ever U18 international against Wales in Carmarthen. He is also the BBC singles champion for 2007-8. The other 4 players (Roy Batterby, Graham Browning, Mike England and David Sperry) have recently played in the Inter County Competition winning the A team Consolation Final against Essex. This is the first time Hampshire has won it for 10 years. Bearing in mind a County team is 20 players our small club is providing one fifth of the team.

Every year we play competitions held at Pirrie Park Bowls Club in Southampton and this year retained the trophy for the ‘5’s competition having won it for the first time last year.

Throughout the winter the club plays in a Friday league at Basingstoke. This year we won the 2’s and 3’s competition for the second time.

Every year the English Short Mat Bowling Association runs a National Competition. Each affiliated club can enter the local County heats to gain entry into the National Finals. This year 5 players from the club qualified for the 4’s finals with Roy Batterby, Graham Browning, Mike England and David Sperry playing as one team and Paul England playing in an U18 team. We all go to Kettering on 5^th April to compete and who knows we may meet each other in the final!

For more information contact H Coleman on 01264 889 307.

To listen to Castledown Radio's Helen Batterby with news of events in Shipton Bellinger including the bowls club click here :

1st April 2008