Some Bowls Club - Addlestone Victory Park

 

Submission for the Runnymede Borough Council Civic Awards 

(Sports Club of the Year)

December 2022.

Secretary and Treasurer: Albert Tapper.

Headline Summary

·         From five members to over one hundred in 18 months.

·         Winner of the Bowls England “Story of the Year” Award. 

·         Over 1,000 locals attend Jubilee “Party in the Park” and Open Day (the largest in the Country).

·         A new community café opens attracting an average of 50 customer transactions and £150 sales a day for trial period 12.03.22-14.11.22.

·         Disabled and learning difficulties bowls started.

·         The largest Junior membership section in Surrey emerges.

·         New self-funded plans to reinvigorate Victory Park and boost local community.

Lawn bowls is a sport in crisis and communities built around local clubs are imploding.  Of 183 Surrey bowls clubs in 2001, only 118 remain.[i]  The number of English bowlers according to Bowls England has declined from 150,000 twenty years ago to just 80,000 today.  And the demise of Addlestone Victory Park’s Bowls Club had been dramatic too.  From over 100 members in 2001, it was reduced to just five by March 2021.

 

Before the 2021 Season started, the remaining members held an emergency meeting, voting 3-2 to stay open.  Here at least was a chance to try something new – the “gift of desperation” as the Club Secretary described it - to overcome five perceived barriers to recovery:

                              

1)      An old-fashioned club management that had made the Club inaccessible and excluding.

2)      Local borough councillors threatening “consolidation” of local council clubs.[ii]

3)      Declining public engagement in pubs and clubs as people “hunker down” at home.[iii]

4)      The negative public image of lawn bowls as “old”, “slow” and “boring” and an unappealing playing experience.[iv]

5)      Covid-19.   

 

The problem with bowls, if one is honest, is of its own making.  It is not the fault of the public, the Council[v] (most clubs think subsidy is a right[vi]) and Covid – or why were the golf clubs suddenly full post-lockdown? 

 

Victory Park, like so many one-hundred year old bowls clubs, was trammelled by sclerotic structures, out-dated and defeatist attitudes, a lack of hospitality, arcane dress-codes, and a phobia of modern technology, particularly social media.  The only aspects of the game that didn’t need changing were the flat green, the curving wood and the long standing, well-evolved rules.

 

Into Action

 

The Club did have £3,000 in the bank.  By June it had spent every penny on an all -or-nothing Open Day and rent to the Council.  The Open Day was heavily promoted in social media, especially local Facebook groups.  100 free cream teas were given away to bring in the crowds.  New members were encouraged to join with a £10 annual membership offer, reduced from £100.   

 

It worked.  Twenty-three new members joined up and fixtures that had previously been cancelled were reinstated. 

 

Unfortunately, some old attitudes remained, but one incidence of bullying by a Committee member precipitated change. On safeguarding grounds, a full meeting of the Club’s new membership was called in August 2021, which voted unanimously for a full Committee change.

At the same time the whole club voted by a margin of 87 per cent to adopt new guiding values of “Accessibility” (Opening the club up to all the public) and “Inclusivity” (making everyone feel welcome and at home within the Club).[vii]

 

A third value of “Financial Self-Sufficiency” was also adopted.  To be a community asset and not a burden on local taxpayers, it was felt the Club should be self-supporting.  Runnymede Council (R.B.C.) estimate it costs £16,000 to maintain the fine turf and Clubhouse every year.  The Club is committed to meeting these costs, becoming fully self-sufficient, paying commercial rents and all its own maintenance within five years.  In 2021 it paid a total of just £2,400 to R.B.C. 

 

By the end of the 2021 Season, the Club’s paid-up playing membership had grown from 23 to 36.  Via Bowls Surrey[viii] news of the goings on in Victory Park had now reached Leamington Spa, headquarters of Bowls England.  Here was a pioneering Club with reversed attitudes that offered new hope for the sport.  It was shortlisted from over 100 nominations to the final three for the “Bowls England Story of the Year Award”, and now subject to a national vote.  The Club placed park legend, the spur to change and now President, Barrie de Suys, 87, at the heart of its bid, not least for his Hannibal-like heroics walking 2,400 laps of the park in Lockdown, raising £10,000 for the RNIB. 

 

Campaigning successfully within the supportive local community, using social media, local BBC Radio Surrey and Sussex (twice), even broadcast television to get the public to vote for Addlestone’s very own Captain Tom and its amazing bowls club. 

 

It won the national award (see video evidence). 

 

But the job was not finished.  In April at the start of the 2022 Season only 23 of the 36 members had paid the new membership fees, hiked to £100.  This was barely enough members to fulfil a now lengthy fixture list[ix] and the Club no longer had any funds to offer subsidised £10 memberships.  With the award won, and amazing community goodwill, something was needed to maintain momentum, uplift membership and thank the locals for voting for the Club. 

 

£3,000 of funds[x] were raised to hold an “Open Day” in May and a “Party in the Park” for the local Community to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee in June (see video evidence).  The Club’s new Sponsor, the local Gingerbread Man Bakery, provided 600 boxed afternoon cream teas at a reduced rate.  Team England Commonwealth Games para lawn bowler Gill Platt hosted the Open Day with Disabled Bowls England, themed on the inclusivity of Bowls for disabled persons.[xi] 

 

200 attended the Open Day, making it the largest bowls club Open Day held in England in 2022.  Astonishingly a staggering 800 locals attended the free Party on Thursday 2^nd June (see video).  All the cream teas were given out within an hour, but everyone over 18 got a free glass of Prosecco or two.  The most exciting result was the number of children (160) who played bowls for the first time on the green. 

 

Before long the playing membership[xii] had quadrupled to over 100, including 18 Juniors and three additional needs bowlers[xiii].  On top of that, the Club now has 24 non-playing social members – in total it now has 128 members.[xiv]  A Club lottery registered with the Council raised a further £1,100 and funded five new sets of junior bowls for the new junior members, four of whom are now playing for Surrey Under 25s.  The Club has run for the last two years a weekly roll-up for Adults with Learning difficulties and this year offered a month of coaching for all its new bowlers, from a fully qualified Bowls England accredited coach, Carole Baker.

 

The Club continues to excel at online marketing and public relations.  It has over 750 friends and followers on Facebook, a presence on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and a YouTube channel with videos attracting 24,000 individual views, currently 3,000 a month.[xv] It has a new website – addlestonebowls.com – and new branded merchandise with a logo designed by a 17 year-old member.  It engages in the science of bulk personalised text messaging to a database of over 1,000 local supporters.  However, the extraordinary growth in 2022 and transformation of the Club’s image has another cause – the new Clubhouse community café – a glowing example of being accessible. 

 

Clubhouse Café

 

Surveys of park-goers had shown a desire for food and beverage provision.  It was hoped that the Club could eventually draw more people into the park – and towards bowls – by opening a clubhouse café.  This was sanctioned by RBC as part of a trial to assess demand for further capital expenditure on facilities, in a bid to Surrey County Council’s “Your Fund Surrey” community development programme.  In thirty weeks of operation, it has gained a five-star food hygiene rating[xvi] and generated £9,000 in total weekend sales[xvii] of Gingerbread Man Bakery product, from an average of 46 customers a day[xviii] – nearly all of whom had never been inside the forbidding territory of a bowls club. 

 

Whilst Club turnover has grown from £5,000 to 2021 to £25,000 this year, little financial profit has been generated, but the exercise has proved the solution to the Bowls Clubs image problem.  For ninety years it had been trying to keep the public out.  Now they were being welcomed with open arms into the Club’s inner sanctum.  How many bowls clubs would tolerate this?  The high barriers between the public and the bowls club came crashing down – people saw with their own eyes that the Club was not intimidating, inaccessible, exclusive, old, slow and boring.

 

The Future

 

However, park footfall remains stubbornly low, and doubts remain that new hospitality by itself, and a thriving bowls club, is going to restore the fortunes of Victory Park – or will prove financially self-sufficient by themselves.  New non-bowling attractions are required, to cross-fertilise new hospitality facilities and the existing bowling.

 

In return for the promise for self-sufficiency within five years, the bowls club is now asking the Council for deregulation and planning permission for further development as part of a new park management plan.  In particular, the land adjacent to the Bowls Club - currently an underutilised croquet lawn area – could be developed as an 18-hole miniature golf course reflecting local history.  This will be a multi-sports bid, with a new clubhouse, café, licensed bar and changing rooms and tea facilities for park footballers.  £500,000 of capital expenditure will come from an expanded Your Fund Surrey bid.  The new facilities will be run commercially by a new Community Interest Company (CIC), constituted and regulated to serve local people, including supporting all park amenities, including the bowls club, serving school groups, local business hospitality customers, other community groups and residents of Runnymede of all ages and needs.   

 

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[i] Bowls Surrey records.  A large proportion of these loses were Council owned clubs like Victory Park.

[ii] Peter Winfield, Runnymede Borough Council’s then “Head of Green Spaces” reported that the Community Services Committee were concerned at the levels of subsidy given to local council clubs (four within four miles) with “dwindling memberships” and “and little effort being made to open themselves up the local community”.

[iii] Putnam, Robert. 2001. “Bowling Alone”. London, England: Simon & Schuster.  This argument, otherwise known as “declining social capital”, reinforces defeatist attitudes within lawn bowls, that nothing can be done, and that the bowls product is not to blame – the public are for hunkering down at home and not going out.

[iv] Bowls England public research for “Fit for the Future Strategy”, 2021.

[v] In September 2022, Runnymede Borough Council was awarded the inaugural Barrie de Suys award for services to the Club, presented to Shaun Barnes.  See attached picture.

[vi] For two good examples being Luton West and Staniforth Bowls Club. See the depressing story of Luton West (notice the composition of its membership – all white, older and male) – see: https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/health/historic-luton-bowls-club-at-risk-as-council-pulls-funding-3509219 and also Staniforth here https://www.thetfordandbrandontimes.co.uk/news/23105366.relief-bowls-club-saved-closure-rent-hike-compromise/ .  Accessed 10.11.22

[vii] A safeguarding and welfare officer was subsequently appointed and took a Coach Bowls “Time to Listen” Safeguarding course.  See attached PDF file.

[viii] See attached letter from the Secretary of Bowls Surrey (S.C.B.A.) in word file format.

[ix] See attached PDF file.

[x] Particular thanks to local Addlestone County Councillor, John Furey, for a large donation from his Community Allocation Budget.  Funds were also raised via the Club’s new “Clubhouse Café”.

[xi] See Youtube video. https://youtu.be/dM28GWYpcE4 .  Many thanks to Egham Bowls Club who loaned Addlestone their Bowls Royce wheelchairs.

[xii] Not including 24 social members.

[xiii] See attached excel file.

[xiv] See attached excel file.

[xv] As of November 2022.

[xvi] See attached image file.

[xvii] See attached image file.

[xviii] See attached image file.

The wonderful story of Barrie de Suys and the revival of a local bowls club.

Winner of Bowls England's "Story of the Year" Award, 2022.

Watch Barrie pick up his award here:

Listen to Albert and Barrie on BBC Radio Surrey:

Many locals consider him the original Captain Tom.  Yet Barrie de Suys, 87, is little known beyond his hometown of Addlestone on the outskirts of London.  Now the winner of Bowls England's "Story of the Year 2022" his unsung achievements during Covid may become a morale booster to a wider audience.  Further, his revival of a flagging council-owned bowls club – from five members at the start of 2021 to forty by Season's end – could become a template for other struggling council clubs to follow. 

 

Addlestone Victory Park Bowls Club has endured a long and protracted demise since 2002 when it had a hundred members and Barrie last served on its Committee as a successful Captain.  By 2020 local Councillors began moves to end the subsidy of the Club (effectively closing it down).  They felt it was making little effort to recruit new members.  Increasingly, reports began to surface of unfriendliness at the club and members leaving as a result.  On one sad occasion a newcomer to bowls was turned away at the gates for wearing shorts.

 

Barrie himself had retired from outdoor bowling in 2016.  He had arthritis in both shoulders and lacked sufficient power to deliver the bowl more than half the required distance.  His medical record also included heart attacks and heart surgery.  In 2018 he had a replacement hip operation which left him with a pronounced limp.  

But his legs were generally sound and strong, as was his willingness to serve the local community.  At the start of lockdown in 2020, for everyone's mental and physical health, Barrie decided to draw people into the Park by walking around its 965 metres perimeter for charity.  

By October he had completed a staggering 2,400 circuits - stunning the local community who took to cheering him on.

Absent on only three days (due to heatstroke) he raised over £10,000 for the RNIB.  He took several falls on his way but waived away those who told him to stop.  In total, he covered 1,440 miles, far further than from Land’s End to John O’Groats.  The oldest person to complete that trip previously was aged 74 – yet Barrie received only minimal local press coverage for his accomplishment. 

Barrie en route, with police guard.

Barrie was deeply concerned about the state of his old club in the Park, of which he was still an honorary life member. The immediate problem in 2021 were the boards around the green which had become rotten and deemed a health and safety hazard by the Council.  They would fit new boards if he painted them with creosote.  This he did, single-handedly, twice over.  This involved two months pre-season work in March and April, working from 9am to dusk.

 

Meanwhile, the Club decided to invest all its remaining funds in recruiting new players via an Open Day, with free cream teas and subsidised annual memberships.  For advertising, it followed what proved wise advice from Bowls England: to market the occasion in local Facebook groups and use the stock Bowls’ Big Weekend digital images (both of which were free).

 

For the 25 new members who signed up at the Open Day, Barrie quickly became a totemic figure: the ‘Duracell Bunny’ was by now gardening around the green every day, also umpiring when called upon, and coaching a new Adults with Learning Difficulties bowling group he helped set up.  He was a figure of inspiration and awe.  He drew the new group of players together as the Club’s figurehead like a kind of glue.  All the new players were united by his tangible goodness and leadership.  He became the yardstick by which to measure decent behaviour, in short, he set the standards and they were high: ask not what you can take from the Club but what you can give.  Park-goers were drawn into the Club to see him and give him food and drink.  People joined up because of his local reputation.

 

Pressure mounted on him to play again, and his frustration grew at not being able to get his woods even the minimum length, right-handed or left-handed.  In recognition of his service to the Club, it gifted him a mechanical bowling arm. 

 

At first it seemed to be wasted precious money.  The bowls were fired off in a wide arc from mid-wicket to extra cover, and still nearly always too short.  But he never gave up and within a month, through hard practice and grit, he learned how to use his new tool with his wonky shoulders, even delivering running shots and the occasional drive.   For new bowlers and weaker bowlers in the Club, giving up had suddenly become more difficult.  If Barrie could play, so should they.  His spirit and encouragement kept them playing.  In July 2021, out of 34 playing members, 28 played, with the remaining six off games, injured.  Amazing numbers, considering over half the Club’s members were new to bowls that year.

 

Barrie’s most important contribution of all was to change the direction the Club was heading.  He was the spur to much needed change.  He embodied some new values that seemed to be emerging at the Club.  Inevitably there was some internal tension between old forces and the emergent new forces.  He led the later, looking to revive the still inward-looking club by opening up as a public service for all.  Measured by his high example, old behaviour began to look wrong and out of place, and change inevitable.

 

Barrie precipitated the creation of a new Committee with ten positions quickly filled by new members.  Perhaps uniquely, he helped push for the Club to adopt three new values, to guide it into the future, which were approved by 87 per cent of the membership in a vote: 

• “Accessibility - previously known as sport for all”.

• “Inclusivity - every player and spectator is made to feel at home inside the Club”.

• “Self-sufficiency – helping the Club become asset for the local community as a Council maintained club, not a burden on local tax-payers”. 

 

This was the makings of a successful strategy to survive and recover.  But tactically, the Club was still struggling to recruit local players.  It became apparent that endless videos of match highlights were not making the required impact in local Facebook groups.  People were not interested in bowls per se it seemed, perhaps due to its national image, perhaps due to the product the Club was offering, less likely because people were ‘hunkered down’ at home, an idea which smacked of defeatism.  If this was really true, why were the golf courses suddenly full post lockdown? 

 

Communications with the local community started to change.  Firstly, a suspected lost pet parrot filmed on the Clubhouse balcony hit the mark with locals.  A video of the Adults with Learning Difficulties was also well received.  Then it was decided that Barrie must be the best content, himself.  A tribute video to him went viral locally, seen by 15,000 locals and liked by nearly 200 in the town.  It was also kindly shared by Bowls Surrey, and Barrie finally got some recognition from a wider area and more members joined up.

 

Barrie de Suys working at the green, December 2021.

In conclusion, the Club has nominated Barrie for three reasons.  Firstly and most importantly - he deserves it.  Secondly, it’s felt his story and how he brought new players into the game is instructive for others.  And lastly, the Club is critically short of funds for marketing, and public relations like this is always free.  Winning this award would help generate more interest in the Club locally, both in online and offline media.  It would help relations with the Council, and the story will help the Club raise the funds we need to subsidise our memberships and develop in other areas.  In 2022, for every ‘over 60’ member the Club must pay £62.50 to the Council, and for every ‘Under 60’, £125.  These are precisely the same amounts the Club charges in membership fees, so the Club currently runs at a loss.  In future, Addlestone Victory Park must either charge more, difficult in a relatively deprived and predominately working-class area, permanently fund-raise or develop reliable new income streams such as providing food and beverages to local park-goers.

  

Donations to the club would be hugely appreciated by anyone who wants to support it, directly.  Please call Albert (Club Secretary) on 07427 664 600 or via email: albert@addlestonebowls.com.   Every pound given will subsidise the memberships of new bowlers to the game who cannot afford the fees.  

 

Barrie was elected as the new President of the Addlestone Bowls Club in August 2021, unopposed.

Barrie recieves his British Citizens Award, House of Lords, September 2021.

See also www.addlestonebowls.com