Bowls club challenge others to get involved in Bowls’ Big Weekend

Bearsted & Thurnham Bowls Club will be one of hundreds of clubs throwing open its doors as Bowls’ Big Weekend 2023 makes its hotly-anticipated return.

The event gives the bowls community the opportunity to come together and celebrate the sport, with clubs opening their doors for free to enable new participants to discover everything that is great about the sport.

Four-time Commonwealth Games medallist Sian Honnor visited the club two years ago, attracting 140 newcomers of all ages and physical abilities to the Kent venue.

And with preparations firmly underway for the 2023 bonanza, club coach James Woolerton wants to see others across the county get involved.

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He said: “We are very lucky in that we don’t urgently need more members.

“It always amazes me when I speak to other clubs while playing our fixtures.

“They will always say that we are lucky because we have so many members, but we are doing stuff like open days and Bowls’ Big Weekend.

“I had a look on the Bowls’ Big Weekend website to see if I could sign up for other clubs, in case one was doing their event on Saturday because then I could go and have a look.

“There isn’t a club within about 20 miles of us that are doing it.

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“A lot of clubs are struggling, but when they are offered this sort of opportunity with support from Bowls England they haven’t taken advantage of it.”

Bearsted & Thurnham Bowls Club will be serving food and drink while offering newcomers the opportunity to try a variety of different bowls-related games and competitions over Bowls’ Big Weekend.

Over 600 clubs signed up to the national weekend extravaganza, and Woolerton believes it is important the sport does all it can to attract new members.

He added: “The reason that some clubs are struggling is the assumption that it comes easy and that you can just wait for someone to walk through your gate.

“You just can’t do that, you have got to hook people in somehow – we are lucky that our facilities are so good.

“Because we have an artificial green it is very easy for young people or the elderly to bowl on compared to a grass green and it does not need the maintenance.

“So it is very accessible, but we do have to work hard to get new members when we need them.”

To find your nearest participating club and sign up for a free session go to bowlsbigweekend.com