Our previous campaigns and why we need your help
Our Bowling Club has already achieved two successful campaigns, and thanks to Sport England, their partnership with crowd funder and our many donors we have been able to:
- Help the Club to recover from lockdown financial losses from both COVID and the cost of living crisis
- Maintain and repair the fabric of the Club
- Install fresh air ventilation that helped the club open early after COVID
- Replace two failing heater units
We now need to complete the project to reduce the costs of running the club by replacing the two existing inefficient heaters that have reached the end of their life expectancy, with greener ones.
The 2 units cost £13,000 and if we can raise £10,000 with our crowdfunding bid , the club will be able to find the £3,000 balance.
Our Club
Bedford Borough Bowling Club is a private members club offering indoor and outdoor bowling in the centre of Bedfordshire.
When the indoor rink opened in November 1971, the club was a private members club but in the last few years we have changed to be a community asset, that encourages non-members to experience the game and our facilities and the many physical and emotional benefits the game and environment bring. Not only do we encourage bowling all year round but we have extended the offer of bowling to the wider community.
As the only club in the centre of Bedford, our members are reflective of the diverse community in our area: young, old, retired and working, new bowlers and experienced, able-bodied, disabled and everyone in between.
All members are encouraged to play bowls for exercise and to meet socially for clubs, quizzes or just a cup of coffee and a friendly chat, with our onsite facilities including:
- a licensed bar
- room for hire
- indoor and outdoor bowling greens
- our own car park
Ready to bowl? Who wins the point?
Replace inefficient heating units
Recent increases to energy bills along with the maintenance of old heating units which had a life span of 10 years and are now well over that time, has hastened the need
to replace the old inefficient units cutting the cost of energy bills and reducing our carbon footprint.
The refrigeration gases are measured by Global Warming Potential (GWP) and those used in these units have a value of 60% lower GWP. This makes the new Medea units 17% more efficient in heating and 19% more efficient in cooling as well as being much better for the environment.
Community Impact
The Bowling Club offers all year round activity from 9:30am for many of our 360+ members who are encouraged to play bowls and to meet socially for clubs, quizzes or just a coffee and a chat. We have a beginners league where new bowlers can learn how to play in teams and a Spoon Drive where anyone can experience playing in different team positions with other members.
The club also offer the local community and beyond, access to bowling.
Our Visually Impaired group, who play twice a week, enjoy bowling and a drink afterwards. Some of these members have played for National teams, and are now helping others to enjoy their bowling. We have recently approached Bedford Sight Concern to offer bowling to some of their members, who may feel that this is an exercise they can participate in.
After seeing a TV program about how bowling can help those with Parkinson's, one of our members approached our local Parkinson Group who were only too happy to come and try the sport.
They have really enjoyed playing and several members have joined the club. They play each week and enjoy the activity and the social interaction at the club afterwards. As a group they have recently visited a similar group at Peterborough Bowls Club and won a trophy! A return match is planned.During the winter months Saturday mornings at the club are devoted to a league for 12 teams from different clubs throughout Bedfordshire. The Eagle League is sponsored by Eagle Travel, a local business, and play for the kudos of being the 'best' team in Bedfordshire.
The Club also plays host to local businesses. We offer an evening of team building and fun where their staff come along, use the bowling as exercise and then have food and a drink in the bar afterwards. Recently Hatters and Sharman's staff have enjoyed an evening with us learning how to bowl.
The local boys school spent an evening at the club, trying bowls and enjoyed seeing how the bowls bend and the different ways they could bowl them! The boys thanked the Chairman and the coaches afterwards, and we hope to see them again during the winter season.
We work with the local authority Sports Development Team and Be Active, The Active Partnership for Bedfordshire, to offer taster sessions in:
'Come and Try Bowls' is a drop in session where anyone can come along to have a couple of hours playing bowls with one of our coaches.
'Active Adults' is an 8 week course to sign up to, which gives a 2 hour session each week with a qualified coach.
Many who try out these sessions are surprised how much there is to getting a bowl down the green to be near a small 'jack' and they go on to join the club.
Local U3A members are also due to enjoy bowling as part of their autumn activities and will be taking advantage of the drop in sessions.
Our local Prostate Cancer Support Group meet every month at the club, to discuss experiences and to promote community testing. Our dining room where the meetings are held, is easily accessible from the car park. The club has offered their members an hour playing bowls before their November meeting and we hope that some of their members will become members of the Bowls Club.
Also meeting monthly in the club are the Bedford Branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, who are very pleased with the step free access that the club offers, and they enjoy a secure and safe meeting place for their members. They are also invited to take up an offer of Bowling before their meeting.
Within the club we have a range of members and family with dementia, and the club welcomes into the club those who have spent many hours here and where things are familiar.
Along with the bowling there are social activities. Quiz nights, Bingo & Whist Drives as well as Raffles. We host birthday parties for members families and of course more wakes than we really would want.
A new adventure in November is a Charity Race Night where the Parkinson's Charity will benefit from the funds raised.
How the community will benefit
All these activities will benefit from the club reducing its carbon foot print and the cost of its energy bills. With most of the activities the indoor club needs to maintain a temperature of 18 degrees in the bowling rink and 21 degrees in the social areas. To maintain these temperatures while reducing the energy costs will help us get back the 20% of members that we lost through lockdown, and increase the money available for expanding our community presence.
Any additional funds raised will go towards improving facilities at the club for our less abled members and visitors. We need to have more hand rails in the toilets and equipment for playing bowls: an additional wheelchair with wide wheels to run on the indoor carpet, a telescope handle for picking the bowls up from the green, flat bottomed walking sticks, a bowling arm for those that can't bend and if possible some smaller lighter bowls.
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!
THANK YOU
Bedford Borough Bowling Club would like to thank Sport England for the funding they have already given to us to enable us to keep offering the community a chance to play bowls and to do it in a friendly club.