Sport Come along and give bowls a go, say Nailsea club

NAILSEA Bowls Club hope throwing open their doors again for Bowls’ Big Weekend can help continue their growing membership numbers.

The Somerset club will be running an open day this Sunday, with bowls taster sessions on offer for those looking to give the sport a try.

It is a method that is tried and tested, with the club seeing an influx of new players post-Covid after numbers began to dwindle to worrying levels before the pandemic.

“We have six rinks so can get evefriendlies ryone playing, it’s a lot of fun on the day, and if people are interested in doing more we run taster and coaching sessions for three more weeks afterwards,” said chairman Duncan Edler. “We will have 30 volunteers showing people what to do and it’s a fun day.

“We have been running the weekend since the first one in 2021, we do quite a lot of social media advertising and in previous years we have had about 40 people turning up to try it out.

“About 50 per cent of our membership has been recruited from the Bowls Big Weekend, so we have seen a tremendous impact. The membership reduced in number prior to lockdown and if we kept going on that route, the club would not have survived. Bowls’ Big Weekend has been a major part of our growth which has been very successful.”

Bowls Big Weekend, which runs from tomorrow to Monday, will see bowls clubs up and down the country put on open days and free sessions in a bid to get more people playing the highly accessible sport.

Nailsea Ladies captain Janet Hobson is proof of the impact the weekend can have, after first picking up a bowl at the club’s event three years ago.

“I would always encourage anybody to have a go,” she said. “I joined three years ago, I had never bowled before. My husband and I were new to the area, didn’t know anybody else at all, and we thought this was something we fancied a go at and haven’t looked back.

“There’s something for everybody, regardless of age, ability, gender. It’s a very sociable sport.

“When I first joined, the ladies club was really beginning to struggle for numbers but those numbers have gone up by almost double and we are putting great teams out every week.”

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