Cheltenham Spa Bowling club hosted their annual open day on Saturday the 9th of May as the club looks to grow their teams.
President, May Shurmer has been at the club for 40 years and has competed in a variety of different club competitions for Cheltenham. The club saw a reasonable turnout throughout the day to try their hand at the sport. Shurmer talked about the prospect of people joining, “Definitely come along and give it a go, you may get desponded at times because you feel like everything is going wrong and other times everything goes to plan and its one of those games where you cant be sure to play well all the time.”
She followed this, “Some members come down to be social, others play more competitively and we have a great community here. So give it a go, our members are welcoming.”
“I was never a sportsperson and I’ve taken to bowls and absolutely love it. I’ve played in county games, club games and league games and I still thoroughly enjoy it”
Founded in 1924 Cheltenham Spa Bowling Club was “built for the ex-servicemen coming back from World War One” Shurmer explained. She also spoke on the security of the club saying, “There’s a trust on it so they can’t do anything else but keep it as a green space and over the years the club has built up.”
Situated in the centre of Cheltenham, the bowls club has attracted many other teams to play there, holding a championship final day’s and also hosted the Liberal Democrats MP Max Wilkinson on their centenary game in 2024.
All members of the club are volunteers and rely on memberships to keep them going although she admitted recruitment wasn’t the best. “We had about 12 new members come and register their interest last year and they disappeared which is disappointing and whilst it didn’t impact us too badly their interest could have grown the club”.
Lawn bowling has a stigma of predominantly being played by older demographics and failing to attract a younger audience. “We don’t see many younger people join the club, we have had a few down today and spend a few hours at the club but whether they join or not is unclear.”
Whilst the current recruitment this year is still unknown, the members of the club will be getting ready for the summer competitions where they will compete in singles, doubles and trios competitions in the hopes of adding another trophy to their growing collection.
