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Pucklechurch Short Mat 25
Bowls Club came into being in
1990, I had heard about this
game which could be played in Vil-
lage Halls, provided the hall was of
a reasonable length. Being involved
with the running of our Village Community Centre, I knew there was room for another
activity to be started. Somehow I got an invitation to go to Kewstoke Village Hall to
watch a demonstration of short mat bowls. I took two other people with me, Len Moore
and Bill Ethrington and having shown enough interest, and considering it a possibility
for us, I invited the demonstrator a Mr. Norman Clinnick of Taunton to visit Puck-
lechurch.
I then had to arrange the necessary day and time here for the demonstration. This
was done with a mass of posters around the Village, and keeping my fingers crossed
that people would turn up. Well there must have been enough people come as we de-
cided we would try and start a Club straight away.
As the necessary equipment was going to cost around £500 (1990 prices!), where
could we get the money? We would need to purchase a full size mat, 45ft. x 6ft., a set
of fenders, a block, a jack and a couple of sets of bowls. I think I could have had a small
grant towards the purchase, but I did not find this out until much later.
So being on the Pucklechurch Community Association committee, I took the "bull
by the horns" and asked at a PCA meeting for the necessary money to make the pur-
chase as a repayable loan. This they agreed to do as it was going to benefit the Com-
munity Centre anyway with regular extra income. We started with only a handful of
members for quite some time and decided we would have to advertise the game more
widely in the local press and local advertisement posters again.
Membership slowly increased to the point where we had to consider the purchase
of another mat, so back to the PCA committee for another loan. Membership was now
growing steadily, and then there was a problem of storing the equipment, as the mats
were stored in covers and carried into the store room and stored in an upright position
because of the room they took up. We had a member by the name of Don Wiltshire, a
coach driver, but also very well with iron work and he offered to make us a trolley with
rollers on and narrow enough to go through the 3ft.door to the store room.
This piece of equipment has proved its worth as membership grew so we were
able to purchase other mats with the funds now coming into the Club to a maximum of
four mats, which is the maximum that can be used in the hall at any one time. As we
had enough members it was decided to get involved with the “new League” which was
being formed for the Bristol and District which meant
Having a Club jumper to go with the grey trousers. We decided on blue, to t which
we have now added a Club badge, which represents King Edmund who was murdered
in his hunting lodge, a building to the rear of what is now the Star Inn, in 946AD. We
now use the Community Centre on Sunday afternoons, Monday and Wednesday
evenings for both Club Sessions and League Matches.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Les grew up in and around Keynsham where he stayed for
twenty two years before moving to the Pucklechurch area. He was always very inter-
ested in Village/Community and was a member of the original Minor’s Institute Hall
Management Committee, of the then new building committee for the proposed Com-
munity Centre and then the Pucklechurch Community Association when the new build-
ing was completed He was also a Pucklechurch Parish Councillor for many years and
was a member of the Village Halls Association. Apart from short mat bowls, he was a
keen Rambler and also of Folk Dancing. He will shortly be ninety years old
John James Pucklechurch SMBC