WINCHESTER Bowls Club has welcomed members of the Royal Household of Windsor Bowls Club for a special friendly match.
The match took place at the Winchester Bowls Club in Worthy Lane on Monday, September 9, and featured 48 players from both clubs playing six “mixed rinks”, with eight players at each rink.
The matches were then followed by a meal at the Winchester Conservative Club.
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Robin Waller, the vice-captain of Winchester Bowls Club, said: “The bowls community are very good as far as inviting other teams from other clubs to come and visit us, and generally we have reciprocal where we can go to Windsor.
“It is the first time we have had Windsor here, and it is an absolute pleasure to have them.
“It’s purely a friendly match today, for comradeship between the clubs.”
Colin Carson, from the Royal Household Bowling Club, said: “We’re on tour at the moment, we were at Exmouth – we played three games there – and we are on our way back home now, so we’ve stopped in Winchester.
“We’ve had a successful tour, it’s been good fun. As Robin said, these games are normally reciprocal, and the teams that we’ve visited on tour will get an invite back to the Royal Household Bowling Club next year. Hopefully, they’ll take up the offer next year.
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“We’re delighted to be invited along. It is a privilege to be here. We don’t visit too many each year as a lot of clubs all around the country like to come down to the Royal Household and bowl on the green, and if they’re lucky see one of the royals walking around.”
He continued: “We have our vice-live president Graham Crisp, he’s here with his wife Betty. He has bowled at the Royal Household Bowling club for 70 years – he wasn’t allowed to bowl on the green until he was 16 years old. He’s just celebrated his 87th birthday, and Betty has bowled for the club for 60 years.
“So, combined, they have 130 years bowling between the two of them!”
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