Both our Ladies’ and Men’s sections have entered the Bowls England national knockout competitions ‘TOP CLUB’, the initial rounds are played at a county level and then progress throughout the country. In the initial round both sections play at home Vs. Poole Park.

The Ladies’ competition consists of 4 rinks of separate disciplines, as follows: Four Bowls Singles (21 shots), Four Bowls Pairs (18 ends), Three Bowls Triples (18 ends) and Two Bowls Fours (18 ends). The winner will be the club who win the most disciplines, if these are tied, the overall highest shot count will declare the winner, if this is still a tie an extra end will be played in the Pairs, Triples and Fours.

The Men’s competition consists of 5 rinks of separate disciplines, as follows: Two Bowls Singles (21 ends), Four Bowls Singles (21 shots), Four Bowls Pairs (18 ends), Three Bowls Triples (18 ends) and Two bowls Fours (18 ends). No discipline can be drawn, so extra end played, the winner will be the club who win the most disciplines.

Ladies’ Captain – Linda Wallis

After finishing my year as President I agreed to be Ladies Captain and I am looking forward to playing outside and welcoming you all. Our green looks magnificent thanks to our Green Manager, Clive Bryceson. Due to a few ladies retiring or moving away we will be having a complete change to the teams this year, giving all ladies the opportunity to put their name forward to play in the competitions. I am keen to promote our open days on May 4th and 18th – 10 am and 2pm; a great opportunity for you to meet us and have a go.

Men’s Captain – Phil Cockman

4 years ago I moved to Swanage and joined the bowls club. Having played rugby and cricket most of my life, I wanted to continue playing competitive sport as long as I was able. Swanage Bowls Club has made me so very welcome. I’m now men’s Captain and bar manager, and have made some lifelong friends. The men play in the Monday league, mixed matches on Saturdays and some weekdays. Roll ups take place Mondays and Fridays. There’s a social inter club league and we open the bar on a Tuesday evening as well as social events and matches. We welcome players of all abilities, new and experienced. I look forward to seeing you.

Club Secretary – Barrie Tatman

Hi, I am Barrie Tatman, I joined the bowling club in 2014, and was made extremely welcome, made many good friends and now I view the club as my second family. In 2018 I became the Club Secretary and have held that office to date. During these years I have held other offices within the club including President and Club Captain. I enjoy playing as much competitive bowling as I can, including the club knockout competitions.

Linda Wallis, Club President

“Fundraising for my President’s year has been so very successful. £1466.60 has been transferred to Swanage Pier my chosen charity this year.
Thank you all for your brilliant support.”

What a set of results we had this year, many of our teams getting to play-offs and winning leagues, thus promotion!

In the Edna Paisley League, the Ladies won ‘Mid Division’ by 5 points to get into the ‘Play-offs’ and beat West Moors the ‘East Division’ winners in the semi-final and met ‘West Division’ winners Dorchester in the final. Unfortunately losing in a tight game!

The Ladies also did well in the ‘June Culpin’ knockout competition, getting to the semi-final, but again losing in a close game!

In the Bournemouth and District Ladies League Thursday Triples, Division 1 we finished 4^th out of 9 (top half).

We have 4 teams in the Bournemouth & District Bowling Association, Saturday Mixed Triples Leagues, one gaining promotion. Here’s  how they finished: ‘Dolphins’ won Section 5 by 18 points and will be promoted next season. ‘Swans’ finished second in Section 1, with a points total of 81, against the winners 84. ‘Dolphins’ finished third in Section 6 amassing 71 points and were so close to promotion for the first half of the season. ‘Seagulls’ finished fourth in Section 5, with a total of 54 points, half those available.

Men’s County League East Division 1, we had a mixed season, starting well but tailing off, and finishing 6^th in the league out of 8.

Percy Baker Leagues, teams of two men’s triples rinks. Both our teams won their respective leagues in East 2 and East 4 and went on to the play-offs.

East 2 lost to winners of East 3 Poole Park in the preliminary round of the play-offs.

East 4 having a bye in the preliminary round, lost to winners of East 5 Wimborne in the quarterfinals.

All in all, not a bad season!.