Lincolnshire's Joan Balding became Bowls England's first Unified President during the Bowls England AGM held at Goodwood BC in Leicester on Saturday 26th February.
Joan will be supported during her year in office by Stuart Lake (Northamptonshire) and Rosemary Ellman-Brown (Sussex), who become Senior Vice-President and Junior Vice-President respectively, and Immediate Past President Chris Smith.
Joan said: "It is an honour and privilege to be the very first unified President of Bowls England and I vow to do everything possible to keep the sport of bowls competitive, challenging and above all enjoyable. I would like to thank my County of Lincolnshire for my nomination and my own club, Spalding Town, for their continued support. I look forward to meeting with many members during the season, and to meeting friends old and new during the National Championships at both Leamington and Worthing."
Among their duties the Bowls England Presidential Team arranges representative teams to take part in club celebration matches, and this year the Presidential Team will be participating in more than 40 matches during the season.
Matches are organised to help clubs, counties and associations to celebrate anniversaries from 50 years and upwards in 25 year increments.
If your club or association is celebrating an anniversary in future years and wishes to request a Presidents Match, please contact Gwen Sabin at Bowls England on 01926 430686 or e-mail: gwen.sabin@bowlsengland.com
The Ladies national championships are taking place at Melton Mowbray this week and the Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club four of Linda Rose, Christine Wharton, Eleanor Gass and Janice Gower almost got the Carlisle club off to a dream start.In the first round last Friday they scored a 30-12 win over Havering IBC but had to fight much harder in the quarter-final to beat Desborough 22-18 after holding a useful 15-5 lead at halfway.
The semi-final was even tighter with the Cumbria quartet leading virtually throughout and hanging on in determined style to win 20-19. That was as good as it got however for in the final they went down 20-11 to Spalding.
On Monday the triples took centre stage and Janice Gower skipped substitute Maureen France, who replace Cindy Edmondson, and Karen Edmondson. In round one they scored a hard earned 22-20 victory over Colchester but were then comfortable quarter final victors when beating Hounslow 24-13.
The semi-final against Bromsgrove was fairly even for the first half but in the second period Cumbria's resistance crumbled and it was Bromsgrove who went through.
Cumbria has no representatives in the pairs but Janice Gower was due to play her first round singles game last night.
Roger McGhie and Ron Gass qualified to represent Cumbria at Northampton in the Senior Pairs but Gass has not yet returned to full fitness and Rick Gallagher took his place. They played their first round game on Tuesday evening and beat Frank Stott and Colin Burbidge of Newquay 21-18, the Cumbria duo were due to meet Don Fowkes of Bridgewater yesterday.
The draw for the last eight has not been kind to Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club for they will meet City of Ely who look to have a strong side and indeed have won their last four games with an average points total of 14-2. The Carlisle club has had to fight rather harder to qualify so already look to face an uphill struggle when they travel to Torquay for the quarter-final game which is scheduled for 9am on Saturday, March 26.
Details of the draw etc have only just been received but it is still possible that a small coach may transport the side to Torquay and anyone who wishes to travel down on Friday, March 25 and return on Sunday 27 should see the club notice boards where further details will be available.
Once again travel expenses are a talking point, for Cumbria IBC has been allocated just £328 to cover 11 players making a 750-mile round trip as well as two nights accommodation at £105 per player. Not really difficult to see why bowlers are turning their backs on national competitions.
The lack of administrators and the lack of interest from some players means that Cumbria will not be represented in The Inter County knockout for the Liberty Trophy next year.
This is a great shame but lack of interest, willing organisers and some poor administration means that one of the best potential sides in the country will not be involved next year.
It is hoped however that funds which have been previously used largely to finance the county side will next year be used for the benefit of a larger proportion of county bowlers as it is hoped that new events can be introduced within the county.
By David Taylor, Last updated at 14:45, Thursday, 17 February 2011
The area final of the pairs took place at Carlisle on Saturday when John Bell and Andrew Baxter took on Paul Barlow and Stephen Farish. It proved to be a competitive final though the standard was not perhaps quite as high as was anticipated. Barlow and Farish, the younger pair, had the advantage in the early stages of this all-Wigton affair but led by just three at the halfway mark. From then on, however, they maintained and extended that advantage eventually getting home 21-11. They will now represent Cumbria at the national finals at Melton Mowbray early in April and will be hoping to repeat not only the success of Neil Karge and Mark Nanson last year but also their own personal success back in 2006.
The Mixed Pairs finals commenced at Northampton last Friday and Cumbria IBC was represented by Janice Gower and Iain McLean. They faced a tough task against Kylie Hampton and Barry Jenkins of the Egham Club and the task proved just beyond them as they went down 20-16.
The Mixed Fours finals commenced yesterday and Cumbria was represented by Jackie Bewley, Eleanor Gass, John Wills and Gavin Taylor. Their first game was against Mark Todd of Beccles .
Cumbria Indoor Bowls Club still has one chance of team success and its players will travel to Stanley IBC on Saturday to meet York for a place in the National Finals at Torquay in March. The Top Club consists of Ladies and Gents Two Wood Singles, a Mixed Pairs, a Mixed Triples and a Mixed Fours. The scoring is two points for each of the two singles and four points for each of the other three disciplines. Cindy Edmondson and John Crozier will play the singles, Karen Edmondson and David McManus the mixed pairs. Jackie Wilson, Alan Carruthers and Anthony Little will again contest the mixed triples and Sylvia Clark, Eleanor Gass, Jim Morris and David Taylor will play in the mixed fours.
Cumbria IBC's annual fixture against The Dumfriesshire Ex-Presidents Association took place on Sunday and resulted in a good win for the home side. Simon Kerridge and Sal Panico had excellent wins for the home side while Eddie McGarr won by seven. There were draws for Paul Campbell and Alex Graham and the home side's only loser was Brian Bryden.
Though few people will be thinking about outdoor bowls just yet most clubs will be opening in nine or ten weeks and the draws for the county competitions were all made recently. As expected now there has been a reduction in entries in three of the four main disciplines. The singles which commences on May 28 has gone down from 89 to 83, the pairs which commences on June 11th is down from 115 to 103. The triples is down from 75 to 73 and commences June 8th but the fours sees a welcome rise going up from 46 to 48 and commences June 13th. Looking at the overall trends both in Cumbria and nationally these figure are not at all bad.
The future of the Association remains in the balance. Following discussions involving the three remaining members of the Executive Committee the decision was taken that there would be no entries in any of the national team events unless new faces came forward to accept responsibility for the administration of these events. To date no new names have been forthcoming and it now seems likely unless they materialise soon that Cumbria will not be represented in the Liberty Trophy, Over-60 Inter County League or the Under-25 Double Rink.
For whatever reason the Indoor County Association has never quite captured the imagination of Cumbria bowlers in the way that the Denny Cup did. In the mid-90s the team did well winning the trophy in 1992, 1995 and being beaten finalists in 1997. The 1992 team was a very young side and marked the upsurge in Cumbria fortunes for the next fifteen or so years. Since 1995 however there has been no success and the amount of travelling and the cost in terms of both time and money has blunted the appetite of Cumbria bowlers. Added to these problems I feel that the National Association does not really appreciate the problems which counties at the extremities of the country face. Together these factors seem likely to bring a close to Cumbria's county exploits for the time being at least.