The Life and Times of Terri Kennard.

I put my car away in the garage yesterday afternoon and, walked into the back door at home to be greeted with ‘Who are you? Actually I did have a good look round to make sure I was in the right house and had to ask an elderly lady sitting on a new 3 piece suite if, in fact, I lived at this address. I will carry a photo of home now, just to remind me.

As the Bowling Sales Executive for TLH Leisure Resort I spend a lot of time on the road, and over the last 5 weekends I have not had a lot of time to spend at castle Kennard. But I have to say that whatever bowls holidays i embark on, and whichever Clubs I visit, I am always made extremely welcome, perhaps it’s because I buy everybody a coffee to start with. It’s a great way to get people sat around a table and chatting.

Here is Newport Bowls Club(Wales) with their brilliant blue carpet. It’s actually very restful to watch bowls played on this surface.

The culmination of these trips around the Country was Leamington, when I attended the 1st AGM of the newly amalgamated association. What an experience that was, if there is anyone out there in the ether who is interested in what happened, here goes.

The name of the association will be English Bowls Umpires Association. No change there, then. It may appear to be simple but there was an underlying current running through discussions that if the name didn’t change it would look as if the Ladies had been taken over by the Men. Now if ever there ever was something reminiscent of the 60’s with all the Union troubles – this could be it. Have you ever heard of such nonsense? The Umpires Associations have never been ‘well off’, but the expense of having new badges struck just to save face seems ludicrous to me.

Uniform: Apparently there is about £6000 worth of stock between the two associations, which would have to be exhausted before a new joint uniform can be

considered. I’ll be dead and buried before that happens, if we have that much stock in hand. Also, God help all those Umpires in 2050 – the expected year when stock will run out at the current rate of turnover, who have to make decisions on what to wear.

Some bright young thing will come up with something controversial and I’ll be one of the old school waving the ‘Say No to Hot Pants’ banner.

Here are the lovely Markers and Umpires for the Ladies National Top Club 2009

There were several other things at the meeting that passed without major problems, and sensible decisions made, after all we are all capable of making informed decisions if the facts are put before us. It was a good, educational day out.

Great News for bowlers everywhere:

I read in Bowls International this month that there is a new alliance that will bring the whole bowling world together. About time. This has to be good news.

The Bowls Development Alliance (DBA)is made up from representatives from Bowls England, EIBA, Crown Green and the Short Mat Bowling Assoc. They are going to look at the way forward to ensure that the drop in bowling numbers is reversed, there is adequate training for coaching etc, umpiring and refereeing. They will look at increased funding for areas that need to see some growth.

Brilliant. Lets hope that the English Bowling Federation will get on board when they see what the BDA can do.

I wish the new alliance the very best of luck and look forward to reading about them in further issues of Bowls International.

What’s going on at TLH
Last weekend saw the 4th year of the Special Disabled Bowling Weekend. Attended by Plymouth Mayflower. Alan McArdle and I designed this competition as a weekend break for Plymouth Mayflower DBC. Alan has sadly passed away, but there is a memorial shield that the Plymouth payers compete for. This year Roger Wilton won the Shield. Roger is an International Wheelchair Bowler and has represented England in the past, for several years. We hope he will continue to do so, even without his partner Alan.

The Cardiff Chameleons, a group of Down’s Syndrome bowlers, also attend this special weekend. It’s a weekend in the calendar that I particularly look forward to getting involved with, and this year we presented all the Chameleons with a smiley face ‘medal of participation’.

It’s all good fun, so if you are a Special Needs Bowler, come and have some fun with us on this weekend.

2011 dates: Friday 15th to Sunday 17th April – Toorak Hotel – From only £115 per person.

It is also with great pleasure that I am able to report that the Chameleons also won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in the Special Olympics at Leicester for Bowling and for Swimming. Well done you guys, it is a pleasure to know you, and I look forward to seeing you all next year.

That’s about all for this week folks,

Signing off

Terri Kennard