Buckland Village, Surrey Buckland Windmill Buckland Windmill Vanes

Dorking Bowling Club

How I joined Dorking Bowling Club and how you can too ……

When I moved to Dorking (2014), little did I think that I would end up playing lawn bowls.  In my mind it was a pastime associated with small huddles of retirees staring at some black bowls as they careered off in a strange arc across a big square lawn in search of an even smaller white bowl.  It felt to be too slow and serious. However, there was no escaping Dorking Bowling Club’s green as it was staring me in the face at the end of our garden.  One day our eldest daughter said, “Dad, you spend enough time standing and staring over the fence at the bowls games, why don’t you go down and have a go?”

So I did, and that was when I realised that it was a really difficult game to play.  For one thing, the bowl seemed to have a brain of its own, determined to shoot off in the wrong direction or inexplicably accelerate to end up off the grass bit, or even get bored and pass out half way to the white “bowl”.  The terminology also stumped me.  It took me a while to realise that the white “bowl” was called the jack (sometimes the jack is yellow – I still don’t know why), not to be confused with Jack, one of the best bowlers in the club.  Also instructions such as “Give it more weight” or “Give it less green” or “That’s a toucher” were at first bewildering.

Nevertheless, right from the start I was made to feel very welcome.  Kind, gentle but incisive coaching was given and every encouragement to play in friendly social games or when, as my game improved, matches against other bowls clubs.  I suppose that’s the thing – the atmosphere on the green and afterwards in the club house was always very friendly, with experienced players willing to pass on their knowledge and encouragement.  I’m glad now that I decided to “hop over the fence” and join this welcoming, humorous, lively club.

Our superb green and club house are tucked away at the end of Drill Hall Road, Dorking with its own car park.  We place equal emphasis on relaxed, social bowls with three roll-ups a week as well as competitive league matches.  During the winter months, when the bowls season has ended, there is a full social calendar based in the licenced club house: Indoors skittle alley, Burns Night, Quiz nights, Beetle drives, Bingo  etc.  There’s always something happening!

If you have any questions and would like to contact us please visit our Dorking Bowling Club website where you can find contact details to call or email us.

See you there!

Philip Dawson