Guildford Dragon

Bowls Surrey

Visits

Background

Sir Francis Drake famously prepared to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588 by having a game of bowls at his local Plymouth Hoe club.   Established in 1990 Burpham Bowling Club isn't quite that old but you can still have a relaxed game of bowls at this mixed club, one of the largest the Guildford area. New members from beginner to experienced are always welcome.  

We have our own clubhouse, with licensed bar, plus access to the amenities pavilion of Sutherland Memorial Park and free parking at weekends (up to 5 hours weekdays).  Our green is looked after by Guildford Borough Council and is one of the best maintained in the area.

Our season runs from April to September.  We take part in a variety of competitions at regional, county and national levels.  We also have an extensive programme of mixed league and friendly matches against other clubs in the area.  And there are programmes of mens and ladies matches.  

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We also have a programme of internal club competitions every year, and casual club matches (i.e. roll-ups) when members can simply turn up for a friendly game of bowls in the company of other club members.  

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Membership is available to playing and social members and we have a very active social programme in the clubhouse throughout the winter months.  We have good links with the local community - for more information see the About Us section.

If you'd like to try bowls we can help you to get started and quickly enjoy bowling at Burpham Bowling Club.  Free tuition is available to new bowlers from our in-house qualified coaches.  You can also join as a social member.

You are very welcome to browse the website and visit the club.  If bowls was a good enough game for Sir Francis Drake.....???

Clubhouse refurbishment fund raising

update 25 March 2020  Alan Hughes

Internal Fund Raising Co-ordinator

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Current fund situation

The fund currently stands at £24,600. This comprises £13,000 allocated by the club and £11,600 raised since then. This will be further boosted by our Gift Aid claims of course.

After the members’ donations (£6,400), the largest contributor was the Guildford Community Lottery. It's amazing to think that we haven't been participating in the lottery for 12 months yet. In that short time 40 of you have bought 76 tickets and generated £1,400 for the club. This is magnificent but please remember that tickets were purchased for one year so in May these will start to expire. In order to maintain this income stream, you will need to purchase replacements. Our target is 80 tickets so there's still plenty of headroom.

The other main contributors were the Ladies’ event (£800), the wine tasting event (£600) and the coffee mornings (£400)/sales table (£400). All magnificent efforts. Well done.

Fund raising planned for 2020

General situation

Further funds would have accrued during the summer from two main sources – sponsorship and events – which have been planned during the winter. Unfortunately these have been impacted the Coronavirus pandemic, but it may still be possible to raise some of this in 2020 and the rest in 2021.

Sponsorship

Sponsors pay us money for allowing them to advertise, mostly outside but also in the handbooks, and for events run by the club which publicise them (as well as us).

Outside advertising

We have recently been having productive discussions with Yeoman's Honda. They wish to advertise outside, but progress has had to be out on hold because of the pandemic. We hope to pick up with then again in due course. Guildford Financial still want to display a banner. Lodge Brothers are considering. Obviously this sort of sponsorship is also along term objective which will help us with the higher running costs of our new lease (once agreed).

Planned events for summer 2020

4 Greens Charity walk

This is John Kershaw's baby and was in advanced planning stage. However it is inevitable that we will need to postpone and rearrange for later in the year, say August or September, when the virus situation improves.

Chelsea Pensioners visit 

The visit arrange for July to help celebrate the club's 30 Anniversary is another victim of the pandemic but hopefully will happen in 2021. Our sponsors are aware.

30th anniversary BBQ

We may still be able to run this depending on the virus situation.

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So we can report that great progress has been made on the find raising front. While the Covid 19 pandemic has caused a slow down we are confident that we can get our planned events back on track once things get back to normal.