INAUGURAL MEETING
This took place on Wed. 4th Sept 1961 in response to a newspaper advertisement appealing for bowlers and prospective bowlers who were interested in forming a bowls club to attend a meeting at Kingswood Civic Centre. The club didn’t become an active playing club until the following year in 1962 together with the opening of the bowling green in May of that year.
FIRST CHAIRMAN: Mr Gordon Gregory was the first chairman. Gordon was chairman for a long time and steered the club through the early years.
FIRST TREASURER: Mr J Channon was our first treasurer and he later went on to become Mayor of Bristol!
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: In 1962 it was 10/6d. Records show that 47 members were listed but it would appear there were only 24 paid up members!
CLUB BADGE: Originally the club wanted to use the emblem of the Kingswood UDC as a club badge but the council said no. After correspondence and discussion the council agreed that the club could use a modified version of the town badge of Kingswood, and this is the one we use today.
1962 FIXTURES: Officially the bowling green opened on May 12th 1962 but matches were played before then and presumably these must have been some away games. It is thought that the first two matches were cancelled because of wet weather (what’s new?), but the very first match played was away to Redland Green.
COMMITTEE MEETING OF MAY 24th 1962: A letter was read out from Mr Yeoman – a founder member – with regard to the supply of clothing for club matches. Perhaps Mr Yeoman was a local gents outfitters – we don’t know! Samples of trousers were submitted for examination at 45/- a pair for the very best quality. This was accepted and Mr Yeoman became the accredited supplier of the club dress. Arrangements for extended payments could be made privately between club members and the supplier if required. It was agreed at that meeting that navy blue blazers and grey trousers would be worn at all matches. In addition to the 10/6d annual subscriptions a match fee of 4/- per player would be paid for weekend games and 2/- for midweek games.
Later, the council insisted that from 1963, each club member would have to hold a season ticket for use of the bowling green and as result of this, the annual subscription for members had to be raised from 10/6d to the staggering amount of £3 3s 0d and £2 2s 0d for OAP’s. To offset this sudden large increase in fees, they allowed members to pay at the weekly rate of 2/- a week. Even this caused further problems because there was not enough cash available to pay the council’s charges when they became due and a small number of members made loans to the club totalling £20.00.
FIRST CLUB DINNER: The first club dinner was held at the Co-Op where the galleries shopping centre now is and the guest speaker was none other than David Bryant who had recently won the world championships in Australia.
1963: In 1963 the club became affiliated to the Gloucester BA and City &County of Bristol BA as well as playing league matches. Since then the club has flourished into what we have here today. We have had many successes along the way and continue to do so.