Kingston Bagpuize and Southmoor Bowls Club

A Brief Club History

The Kingston Bagpuize and Southmoor Bowls Club came into existence in late 1990 when a Short Mat bowling club was formed. This took place in the local Village Hall in Southmoor on two 45ft carpet bowling mats. At this time the club had between 40-45 enthusiastic novices plus a few experienced bowlers to guide and instruct.

During the next four years the club developed into one of the leading short mat bowling clubs in the Vale of White Horse area of Oxfordshire and had two very good bowling teams. Some of the members were developing into really good players and as a reward they were invited to attend trails for the Oxfordshire County team. Three players were selected to represent Oxfordshire in the inter-county competitions. The club had several young members and the club held a club night for practicing on a Thursday evening.

Even in these early days the mandate given to the committee was that some time in the future, when a suitable plot of land could be obtained and adequately finance, the club would build an outside bowling green .

After numerous set-backs to do with acquiring land, in 1994 the club managed to negotiate the purchase of a small piece of land off the old A420 road from a local farmer Mr Murray Maclean. Contracts were drawn up and the land was transferred in 1994. The land was a former orchard which was part of the local fruit farm. The land was purchased from existing club funds.

The next major step was to arrange for funding of the actual work. After numerous meetings and letters being sent backwards and forwards the club finally managed to secure sufficient funding to commence the construction of the bowling green . The bulk of the finance was raised in the form of grants from the Lottery Sports Council (£42,000), the Foundation for Sport and Arts who had sufficient faith in us to provide the first £25,000 and our own District and Parish Council who also provided valuable assistance.

After considerable deliberations and with the help and guidance from the English Bowling Association it was decided to have an artificial, all weather surface as our playing surface and the club approached Greengauge Ltd from Dundee in Scotland whose polypropylene carpets would provide the club with the best and longest life. Most of the basic groundwork was organised and carried out by our own members, this included the excavation of the green area, establishing the drainage system and the construction of the foundations of the green which included the laying, rolling and leveling of some 525 tons of porous stone.

After the completion of the groundwork's, Greengauge constructed the ditches and laid the final surfaces of stone, porous tarmacadam, underlay and carpet. The level of the playing surface was measured using high technology lasers and the playing surface (40m x 40m) was level within 4mm over its area. Their work was carried out during June, July and August 1996.

In parallel with the construction of the green the DIY members of the club were busy erecting and repairing two old army huts which had been donated to the club. These were dismantled, transported and renovated to provide us with a basic clubhouse. The clubhouse was finished during the spring of 1997, complete with a kitchen, bar and toilet facilities.

Although the club had been open for bowling since September 1996 it was not until April 1997 that it was fully operational. On the 12 April 1997 the outdoor green was officially opened by Andy Thompson who spent the whole day at the club, performing the opening ceremony and kindly providing some friendly coaching to several of our members. Also present at the opening were the Men and Ladies Presidents of the Berkshire County Bowling Association.

The local village population at the time was about 2,500 but the club has members from nearby towns and villages giving us a membership of approximately 70 members. The next goal set by the committee was that at some time in the future the club would have its own purpose built club house to give the necessary space for short mat bowls and facilities to host a six rink match in reasonable comfort.

In 2003 the club undertook an exercise to plan and cost for a brick purpose built clubhouse. A number of options were investigated and costs were obtained. The favoured option was to have a new purpose built clubhouse to replace the existing clubhouse. This proved a very expensive option and difficulties were being experience with the planning authorities. The second option was to build a brick and wooden cladding extension to the existing clubhouse. This option was sanctioned by the committee and had the backing of the membership. The new brick extension would be big enough allow one short mat carpet to be located in the extension and it would allow the club to cater for up to six rinks. The extension was completed in July 2004 and the extension is currently being fully utilised and has give the club more scope for social activities.

Current activities involve fund raising for the replacement of the bowling green carpet which will cost approximately £25,000. The existing carpet will require replacement in 2009/2010.