THE complete website for Lawn Bowls

Welcome to the Website for this Lawn Bowling Club, a premier club in west Sussex and indeed in southern England. We are dedicated to the game of "Lawn Bowls" and have a proud record of achievment, representing as we do this picturesque village in rural Sussex. This web site has had in excess of 200,000 pages viewed to July 2007

Home Page

For the general information of guests surfing in from other parts of the U.K. and indeed from other lands we have decided to add pages to this site describing our village "LIndfield Village" and some of the many beautiful and interesting places in our county "Beautiful Sussex". In addition we have taken this opportunity to devote a page to describing the historic role and development of our county of Sussex from the Ice Age to the 18th Century in the"Chronicle" page, the folklore, humour and the stories of the famous and infamous people of the County is explored in "Stranger than Fiction".

Do you like to Win! at bowls? In particular at 4's? If so check out the "Bowl to Win!" page to find out how it is done! For how to "Get Started in Bowls" goto that great informative page! For a very interesting history of SPORT in the 20th Century visit "History of Sport" and for a good laugh with hilarious sporting jokes go to "Humour in Sport"

The club which has two independent sections "Men's Section" and "Ladies Section" was formed in 1903 and celebrated its centenary in 2003 with some special events and invitation matches. We have an active social calendar planned which will include regulars such as our BBQ's, Quiz Nights, beetle drives, cheese & wine, fun bowls, Bonfire Night and Carols nearer Christmas. Our annual Dinner normally take place in September or October to round off the year.

The Recruitment Committee will continue its efforts and again on Friday 13 June and Saturday 21st June 2008,will hold a "turn up and try" coffee morning 10am till noon, for anyone interested in joining and also will have a stall at Village Day on 31 May to promote the club complete with "target bowls". Ken Baker our club coach will be available for individual tuition on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am or 6pm (by appointment). Both the Mid - Sussex and Border Leagues will feature on our competition programme and both will run a knock-out team competition day during the season to which we will enter teams. The Nicholas Soames Trophy will be featured and we will try to go one better than our semi-final rank of last season. The very popular Lindfield Jubilee Triples Week will again take place on the second week in August with many visiting teams from the county of Sussex.

The club is governed by a General Committee consisting of the Officers of the Club as detailed below for 2007:-

PRESIDENT Mr. Ken Eldred

CHAIRMAN Mr. Roger Green

HON. SECRETARY Mr. Stephen Henton

HON TREASURER Mr. Clive Smith

MENS CAPTAIN Mr. Chris Reynolds

LADIES' CAPTAIN Mrs. Dorothy Keogh

CHAIRMAN MENS SECTION Mr. B. Jones

CHAIRMAN LADIES SECTION Mrs. S. Wellum

MENS SECTION SECRETARY Mr. H. Parkyns

LADIES SECTION SECRETARY Mrs. C. Wilson

The ancient village of LINDFIELD is situated to the north of the town of HAYWARDS HEATH in the Heart of rural Sussex. Please refer to the attached plan to find our location within the village

The Hon. Secretary, Stephen Henton can be contacted by phone on :- 01444 483252 or leave a message in the Visitors Book on the Photo/Club History Page.

Webmaster Ken Anderson can be contacted on 01444 413975

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Lindfield

Common

West Sussex

Getting Started in Bowls

Photos/History/Links

Humour in Sport

Scenic Sussex

Lindfield !

To view another page left click a star

Chronicle of Sussex

Stranger than Fiction!

This page was last updated on: 12/4/2008

lindfield bowling club, the premier bowls club in sussex england. Lindfield Bowling Club welcomes all bowlers worldwide. links to sport in the 20th century, world bowls 2004, how to win at bowls, bowlswear, equipment, tourism in sussex, the village of Lindfield, the history of sussex, the humour and folklore of sussex and the famous and notorious citizens of sussex

Bowl to Win!

Would YOU like to get started in the game of bowls? If you are interested, to find out how - CLICK HERE!

History of Sport

Is Your club thinking of TOURING in Kent or Sussex?

If YES then contact :-

M. O'Donnell Match Secretary

01444 483709 if you would like to play at LINDFIELD!

President

Ken Eldred

Did this website interest you? If so perhaps a visit to the following you would also find enjoyable and informative_

The History of the British Empire - CLICK HERE

Victorians and Empire, The British Way - CLICK HERE

True Tales of War, Adventure and Exploration - CLICK HERE

Greatest Highlights of Sport in the 20th Century - CLICK HERE

The Great, the Famous and the Infamous - CLICK HERE

The fascinating story of the British Monarchy - CLICK HERE

Eyewitness to the History of America CLICK HERE

Eyewitness History of America - The Later Years - CLICK HERE

Fall of The Brtish Empire - CLICK HERE

Ken Anderson

Webmaster

NO TIES ON US

A NEW TREND IN LINDFIELD

Lindfield men bowlers (and visiting high-profile guests, see above), have been freed from wearing ties on the Green. The old style white shirt and tie is gone and replaced by a club coloured polo shirt complete with club badge." We thought it was a restriction in more than one way. It is a summer sport and and we are trying to make sure it survives and prospers. The new shirts have proven to be extremely popular, " said Roger Green, Lindfield's spokesman, "and not only with us, many other Clubs have expressed interest in doing the same. It promises to be a colourful season." The ladies section of the club were so impressed by the new coloured shirts they decided they must have their own version - and the result is very acceptable!

Can you spot our VIP guest players

Messrs. Pitt, Beckham, Windsor and Bin Laden

Stephen Henton

Hon. Secretary

Monday August 27th

The magical Sussex climate once again rose to the occasion when, after a dismal August so far, the sun shone on our 2007 Finals Day. The well-oiled wheels of our efficient "back-room team" of umpire, markers and score-keepers under Competition's Secretary Peter Colbourne, and the distaff side under Ladies Captain Betty McMillan, swung effortlessly into action to ensure a very pleasant and trouble-fee day for all. As usual we had an eager and appreciative audience of club-members , friends and family of the contestants there, to cheer on their special favourites.

The order of events were as shown below and the occasion lived up to its usual high standard for excitement. Special mention must be made of the Watsons, Ian and Carol, as between them they featured in seven of the twelve finals. Again we must congratulate our respective champions Shirley Jones for the ladies and Adam Harding for the men - well done!

Full List of Results

On Green

0930Hrs. MEN'S PAIRS S . HENTON, N.SUGARHOOD 22 P. Gacsall P. Keogh 17

0900 LADIES' PAIRS

M. Langridge S. Nelson 16 C. WATSON C.SUGARHOOD 29

1400 LADIES BACKBONE C. Watson 11 D. KEOGH 21

1630 MEN'S HANDICAP F. Morris 9 I. WATSON 21

11.45 MEN'S VETERANS

P. Simonds 17 W. COLBOURNE 21

1200 LADIES' TWO WOOD

S. NELSON 18 C. Watson 9

1400 MEN'S CHAMPIONHIP

A. HARDING 21 I Watson 15

1600 "BUTFOY" MIXED SINGLES C. Watson 15 G.NELSON 21

1030 MEN'S BACKBONE

F. MORRIS 21 K. Anderson 15

0930 MEN'S TWO WOOD

I. WATSON 21 A. Harding 13

1400 LADIES CHAMPIONSHIP S. JONES 22 M. Orchin 18

1630 LADIES 100UP S. Jones 65 S.NELSON 105

Play in progress during the afternoon session, Mr. Connery is engrossed in a match!

Photos, History, Links

Bowl to Win!

Lindfield

Stranger than Fiction

History of Sport

Getting Started in Bowls

Humour in Sport

Chronicle of Sussex

Sussex County

The bowls season has started and has seen almost continuous blue skies. We have played a couple of friendlies, both away games and lost both, so we need to find that winning formula as soon as we can.

We have been donated a new bench by Mrs Jennifer Morgan in memory of her parents, Les and Barbara Page, who played at Lindfield for many years. Both were Club Captains and Les also served the Club as Match Secretary, Chairman and President.The bench will be much used by players and spectators alike.

On June 23rd from 10 AM until 11.30 AM, we shall be holding an Open Morning for prospective new members. This will give you a chance to come along, look us over and try your hand at the game. We shall be glad to see as many of you as possible. Just come and have a go and see for yourself. No hard sell or pressure. All we ask is that you wear flat soled shoes without heels.

Les & Barbara Page

Article Copy reads :-

Lindfield teams are currently on a superb winning run and it is showing in outside competitions, particularly the County Pairs.

(It then gives a detailed account of the County Pairs matches between Dave Richardson/Ian Watson (LBC) and Ollie Ovett/ Dave Gandy (Hove and Kingsway), and Adam Harding/Keith Holman (LBC) and John Dicker/Clive Lemondine (East Preston & Kingston) in both of which the Lindfield pairings prevailed to march on to the semi-finals.

Richardson/Watson/Holman and Graeme Geddie (LBC) are through to the semi-finals of the County Fours to be contested at Lindfield on Friday 6th July, having disposed of Southwick and go on to meet Eastbourne.

Lindfield also made a successful start to their County Double Fours campaign having won both home and away legs against West Hoathly in round one, they repeated the feat last week against Buxted to earn a third round tie against Uckfield which we can now confirm they won on Wednesday 4th July.

A good start in the Mid Sussex League comtinues as the club improved its position at the top of the table by picking up maximum points against Henfield, while the Border League (Sussex/Surrey) are also mounting a strong challange with a good score against Redhill at home only to see it grabbbed back at our visit to them on Thursday 5th July.

Meanwhile players at Lindfield are rewriting the record books with on of the best winning streaks since the club was formed in 1903.

On Sunday the mixed men's/ladies team continued their amzing friendly match run,notching up 25 straight wins by defeating visitor Tunbridge Wells. The club started the season with two defeats and a draw but never looked back after that. (update 20th July unbeaten streak now 32 matches).

Since May they have also started a long run of wins in the Mid Sussex League and Border League both of which they top, and are unbeaten in the Nicholas Soames Trophy matches.

Alan Nicholas, the Men,s Captain, told the Mid Sussex Times: "I would think the unbeaten run i unprecedented. We are very strong this year, there is no doubt about it."

The ladies of the club are also going well, having won eight of their last 10 friendlies.

CLUBS UNITE IN PROTEST

The Lindfield Club and the Lindfield Bowling Club took time out to jointly lend their support to the “Save the PRH” (Princess Royal Hospital) protest.

Annually these Clubs play a match for the Mick Abbott Charity Shield and raise money for an agreed charity. The benefactor this year being the St Catherine’s Hospice. Mick’s widow Enid and daughter Alison were happy to join in the front row along with members of both Clubs with whom Mick had a long association.

In glorious sunshine, the actual match was won for the first time in three years by the Lindfield Club, due in part to a dubious and generous handicapping system, which is now subject to review.

Mrs Pat Lewry, the Lindfield Club’s social secretary received the Shield on behalf of the winners.

Sales of hot dogs and burgers, an enormous raffle and fines for almost anything saw a grand total of £460 raised for St Catherine’s.

Terry Hughes and Mick O’Donnell coordinated the event and expressed thanks to all involved.

Roger Green, Chairman of the Bowls Club, pointed out that the Officers of both Clubs were glad of the opportunity to show their membership’s support for the PRH Campaign

SUNDAY 22ND JULY 2007

THURSDAY 5TH JULY 2007

Lifeboats benefit to the tune of £700 on Lindfield Men's Captains Day - Saturday 4th August 2007

A day of faultless weather crowned what turned out to be the best Captain's Day for many a year. Alan Nicholas and his dedicated team had pulled out all the stops to ensure a great days bowling for some 20 teams from the Mid- Sussex area including Buxted, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Lewes, and many more. The "scoff" was superb and all the better for a morning in the fresh air. After an engrossing day of mixed fortunes for most it was two Lindfield teams who battled it out for the winners prize, with Roger Green's team just edging out Ken Eldred's team

Roger Green's winning team ,N. Sugarhood,

F. Morris K. Foxwell, R. Green

Runners up :-Chris Thomas,G. Nelson,P. Gacsell

K. Eldred,I. Wilson

Final in progress

LATEST NEWS! Sunday 5th August 2007 - Popes Mead Bowling Club, Crawley

Congratulations to Ian Watson and Dave Richardson on becoming the County of Sussex Bowling Association "Pairs" Champions for 2007. Following this victory Ian and Dave went on to capture the Home Counties of England Pairs Championship for 2007

Ian Watson

Dave

Richardson

THE GHOST OF FRED ANTROBUS

Legend has it that in the summer of 1904, the year after the club was opened, there was a violent thunderstorm and the then greenkeeper, Mr. Fred Antrobus, whilst inspecting the condition of the green was struck by lightning and killed. To this day, in certain light conditions his ghost can still be seen carrying out its never-ending spectral inspection of the turf. A rare shot of this apparition was taken in 2004 during Finals Day. See opposite

Lindfield Bowling Club, participate in two leagues The Surrey/Sussex Border League (Men), and the Mid-Sussex League(Mixed). We are delighted to announce that we are the 2007 Champions of both.

The Edward Rowland Trophy 2007

On Sunday 2nd September, at Burgess Hill BC, the four from Lindfield beat the team from Lancing, by 21 to 19, to win the Edward Rowland Trophy for the second year out of 3. Lindfield got off to a good start building up a comfortable cushion but Lancing came storming back to take the lead at 18 - 19. Fortunately Lindfield were able to make a mighty final effort to just edge this final. The Lindfield personnel were

Lead - Adam Harding, 2- Derek Heather, 3 - Ivan Orchin and Skip - Ian Watson

(Other team members who did not play in the final but whose contribution in earlier rounds were every bit as important were Graeme Geddie and Frank Palmer)

2007!

Shirley Jones

2007 Ladies Champ.

The final of the Mixed Pairs was played on Sunday 26th August between Chris and Norman Sugarhood and Carol and Ian Watson and resulted in a win for the Watsons.

Adam Harding

2007

Men's Champ

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The club in its freindly season also had a record-breaking run winning 44, drawing 4 and losing 13 with a positive shot difference of 1032.

The John Ellmer Trophy

Sunday 16th September saw theis year's game to decide the above with our old rivals Buxted Park, in which their 2007 season champions challenge our 2007 season champions. Buxted having won it for the last two years were going for a hat-trick. Lindfield were equally determined to thwart this. As usual it was a closely fought game with Lindfield just pipping Buxted 3 games to 2, the singles, triples and fours winning, the pairs and double fours losing. Lindfield team was : -

Singles - Adam Harding

Pairs - P. Keogh, P. Gacsall

Triples - R. Green, R. Harding ,F. Morris

Fours - G. Geddie, C. Reynolds, P. Elford, W. Colbourne

Double Fours - I. Orchin, D. Heather, P. Simmonds, P. Colbourne, / M. O'Donnell, G. Nelson, B. Jones, G. Dee

Nicholas Soames Trophy - Final

The final of the second year of the above, Australian Format competition, i.e. three teams of pairs bowling 4 bowls each, with players alternating as lead and skip, took place at Lindfield Bowling Club on Sunday 9th September. Scheduled to commence at 10 am the two finalists Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath took to a green still damp and heavy with the morning dew. Early indications were that Burgess Hill would go one better than their "runner-up" position last year as they got off to a positive start and took the lead in two of the three rinks. As the morning warmed up and the green dried out, the game changed and Haywards Heath seemed to cope better with the drying conditions. Pulling ahead they mintained their lead and won two of the three rinks leaving Burgess Hill to once again settle for second best. On hand to present the trophy was the very popular M.P. for the area Nicholas Soames who inaugurated the competition

Burgess Hill Team

Haywards Heath Team

Chris Reynolds

Men's Captain

2008

Dorothy Keogh

Ladies Capt. 2008

Barry Jones

Chair -Men's Section

Statistics

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Men's Captain's address,

Thank you all for the honour bestowed upon me as men’s captain of The Lindfield Bowls Club for 2008. With Alan Nicholas as captain the club had a very good 2007 season and to be as successful we all need to support the club in whatever way we can, but particularly by putting your names forward for matches, be they friendlies or leagues .

If there are any queries, or matters you would like to raise, vice Captain Graeme Geddie and myself are very approachable.

I am looking forward to the club achieving honours at least at County level, and for all competitors in all competitions - may the force be with you!

This season the weather will be good, the green will be good, so the bowling will be excellent. The very important social side of the club will continue to entertain, so there is no reason why we shouldn’t all have five months of unbridled merriment! ENJOY!!

Captain Chris.

Ladies Captain's Remarks

The Ladies' Section have a busy season ahead. We have the usual friendly matches and, in addition to local and county competitions, have entered two other leagues, one mixed and one ladies only. I shall need everyone's support in order to fulfil all the fixtures.

On July 12th. I have a charity day in aid of Chestnut Tree House, the only children's hospice in Sussex. I hope for a fine summer's day and some enjoyable bowling culminating in a handsome cheque for this worthy cause.

Dorothy Keogh

THINKING OF JOINING - WHERE TO OBTAIN FURTHER INFORMATION

To learn more call any of the people listed below : -

Men's Secretary Hugh Parkyns01444 482672

Ladies Secretary Chris Wilson email - chriswilson14@btopenworld.com

Marion Glossop01444 452186

Dee Gardner 01444 882205

Ken Anderson 01444 413975