The Club

Frant Bowls Club is a village bowls club maintained as a CASC (Community Amateur Sports Club) by its members. It is easy to find the green by Frant Memorial Hall on the Bells Yew Green Road on the opposite side to the cricket pitch. The post code is TN3 9ED or go to the location page for a map or directions. Or use What3words ///reject.ships.closes

Indoors

There is an associated short mat club which is based in Frant Memorial Hall where roll-ups are held on Tuesdays during the winter season. The short mat club is not playing league matches this season.

The 2024 season

Finals day is over and the finals have been played, although not on the same day. The weather was awful but the lunch had been prepared so the event took place and was an excellent and enjoyable social occasion. The actual finals matches were played during the following week.

The next planned social occasion was to be the Curry Lunch but that too had to be cancelled for this year.

One of our last matches of 2024 has had to be cancelled with both Frant and Bidborough unable to field a team. With several regular players taking a late holiday the final two are also in doubt but overall it has been a successful season with significantly more matches won than lost. Included in the list of clubs we managed to defeat both home and away include Colemans Hatch, Groombridge, Wadhurst and Crowborough.

The season started with the first rollup being abandoned because of hail and the home match against Crowborough early in September was almost the same. The match was interrupted by a heavy shower but was completed after a delay of only a few minutes. Whilst the protagonists were still refreshing themselves at the bar afterwards there was a violent hailstorm which almost turned the green white.

The Green

The green has survived the season remarkably well but has taken its toll on our summer Allett mower which has become seriously worn. This has probably been caused by the unusually active earthworm population. Wormcasts are always removed with a dew switch before mowing and worked back into the grass but inevitably some of the particles remain high enough on the surface to be picked up by the mower. The mud builds up on the grass guide behind the cylinder and the engine starts to labour as this build-up interferes with the cylinder. If not hosed down while still damp this requires the mowing cassette to be removed from the mower and taken apart so that the deposit can be scraped off. It is probably this extra load on the engine that has caused a lot of wear to the drive train which has only just made it to the end of the season. From the end of September we start using a rotary mower for the winter and we'll have the worn parts replaced when the mower goes in for its annual service.

Have a go

Some clubs, particularly in a more urban setting than ours are offering evening pay-and-play deals so that non-members can have a playing session and use of the licensed bar. This is becoming popular with a younger age group and helping to dispel the "old man's game" image. This would not work at Frant because we are not regularly open to casual visitors. What we have done and can do again is to arrange corporate sessions. A typical arrangement would be for a group to arrive at lunchtime (optionally with their own lunch as we don't have catering facilities). We can supply drinks and we would give a short introductory demonstration for beginners in the clubhouse. We then move out to the green where we split into up to four groups in each of which club members help to get everyone started with a practice session. We follow up with a challenge match by dividing into two teams. Ideally there will be some departmental rivalry such that bragging rights for the winning team is adequate motivation. We finish in the clubhouse bar for the bragging to begin...

Teas survive!

Several clubs have now returned to the custom of providing proper bowls teas at weekend matches. This practice virtually ceased at the time of Covid lockdown but Frant maintained its high standards as soon as matches resumed and it is always appreciated by visiting teams.

This website

The website has been enhanced in several ways of late. As usual this process keeps me busy but usually results in a few glitches before it all works well again.

Competitions

There is now a publicly available function to help arrange bowls competitions. It will tell you how many rounds you need for n-player knockout competitions and how many entrants get a bye in the first round. It will tell you how many matches you need in each group for round-robin competitions and given the number of woods per person and number of ends, all the estimated timings are given.

Registered users (not necessarily club members) can now set up competitions and the site will generate complete match schedules and league tables for round robin competition stages and a draw for knockout stages or complete knockout competitions. These competitions allow results to be entered to maintain league tables and knockout progress.

Notification emails

The emails that are automatically sent from the website to members (and registered users) who have subscribed to them are now in a more aesthetically pleasing form (although work still needs to be done here, I have to admit).

A site for your club

Potentially, all the functions of the website are available to other bowls clubs. Currently only Frant Bowls Club and Frant Short Mat Bowls Club use the site but to set up another club is relatively straightforward. The club colours can be specified and a club administrator must be nominated and a modest fee agreed with the developer. The club administrator can then set up the members, the clubs with whom fixtures are held and those fixture arrangements and regular events. The club's home page can be drafted and configured online and updated as frequently as required. Feel free to ask for a trial.

Tuesday Cup

On Tuesday roll-up evenings, we run a season-long competition for which a cup is awarded to the winner at our awards dinner in November. The rules are such that members can play as many of these games as they wish, with the shots scored by their team in their best 8 games counting to their season total. There is a larger element of luck than is usual in bowls games because teams are drawn randomly from those who want to play each week. The format can be pairs, triples or even rinks on up to three rinks. If we have an odd number of players we can even end up with the dreaded three-against-two arrangement! These rules mean that everyone is required to play in the position drawn and may have the advantage of being teamed up with strong team mates or struggling with weaker bowlers. It evens itself out over the season and as long as enough games are played, the low scores don't count anyway. Good character-building stuff!