Brian Stockwell's Speech at The Hundred Year Dinner - Brian is the longest serving member

I f irst joined the club 1981. How things have changed. No mobile phones or laptops but the benefit of that was that we didn’t have to spend half the morning reading Kestrel’s e mails. I was asked by a couple of friends, Peter Steele and George Blackburn, if I wanted to join them for a roll up one evening. In those days you had to book a rink through the council. Then after a few weeks, President, George Cole, asked if we would like to join the Club. We agreed to give it a go and signed the forms. The next thing he said was that you will be playing on Saturday but failed to mention that we would need a Club blazer and tie. We then needed a season ticket which was purchased from the Council offices.The green was run by the council at the time. The grounds were looked after by the council and there was a wooden hut behind the Clubhouse which was maned by a council worker, taking the money for both bowls and putting. In the mid nineties EHDC decided it could no longer afford to look after the bowls club and putting green, they offered it to us in the mid nineties, under lease for 40 or 50 years which the club accepted. This meant volunteers looking after the club, putting and gardens. Two of our members, Ray Wareham and John Daniels volunteered to go on a green keepers course. Also another of our the members at the time, Stan Keen, started the topiary and when he moved away Peter and George took on the task of maintaining it. Most of the equipment for looking after the green was handed over to us by the Council. In 2012 it was decided to change from blazer and tie to coloured shirts despite a few of the older members refusing to change, and still turned up in tie and blazer. I can remember one turned up wearing a pink hat and when asked why, he replied ‘to match the bloody silly shirts you want us to wear’ Around this time there was an influx of ‘younger’ couples who joined and bought new ideas to the Club. Much the same as is happening now. Thanks to Chris Mustoe, he arranged for the Club to go on the first tour to Gorleston, Suffolk, much to the disgust of some of the older members. However it was a huge success but not many of us who went are left now and those who are will not forget Les Crisp dressing as Julius Caesar and doing his leg shake! You can ask Dis or Jackie to explain. I am pleased to say that other than the possibility of COVID, the tours have continued every year since. I am sure the Club will continue to go from strength to strength and to sum up, on behalf of all members, I would like thank the committee for all their hard work in planning for our 100th year. Thank you for this evenings get together and subsidising the meal. I would like you all to stand and raise your glasses for a toast to the future of Ware Bowling Club. Here’s to the next 100 years