Norcross Bowling Club

Crown Green bowls is a bigger sport than you maybe imagined. On the Fylde coast alone (which isn’t even considered to be one of the real hotbeds of the game), there are twelve different leagues for men and women bowlers. To give you a quick impression: the Wednesday Fylde League has seven divisions of twelve teams each, assuming a squad of ten for each team that’s 840 players on that night alone. Of course, many play more than once but hopefully you’ll see that there is a much larger infrastructure in place than some would think.

Don’t confuse it with the flat green game though. You may well have seen bowling on TV, often indoors, and it’s almost certain these days that that will have been a flat green match, which employs slightly different rules, equipment, procedures and etiquette. Crown gets very little TV coverage (although Sky showed the finals of this year’s Autumn Waterloo Handicap) and the game desperately needs more exposure to survive long term. At present, at local league level, the game is as popular as ever but not enough people are taking the game up any more – I’m still Norcross’s youngest player after 22 years!

Norcross, like every other local league club, is affiliated to the North Lancs and Fylde Crown Green Bowling Association (NL & F CGBA), which forms a local part of the national governing body of the game, the British Crown Green Bowling Association (BCGBA). The 12 leagues that exist in the local area include these following ones that Norcross compete in:

• WELCOME OVER 50’s LEAGUE (Monday afternoons)

1^st team Division 2 2^nd team Division 2

Captain Mike Bell Captain Mike Cranshaw

• WELCOME LEAGUE (Tuesday evenings)

1^st team Division 2

Captain Steve Hartley

• FYLDE VETERAN’S LEAGUE (Tuesday afternoons)

1^st team Division 2 (North)

Captain Alan Smith

• FYLDE LEAGUE (Wednesday evenings)

1^st team Division 3 2^nd team Division 4

Captain Steve Jackson Captain Alan Dore

• FLEETWOOD LEAGUE (Thursday evenings)

1^st team Division 1 2^nd team Division 2

Captain Alan Smith Captain Dave Briggs

• THORNTON CLEVELEYS LEAGUE (Friday evenings)

1^st team Division 1 2^nd team Division 3

Captain Geoff Jackson Captain Barry Jones

Norcross have 11 teams in total, which I would guess is probably the highest number that any club offers in the Fylde. 8 Bowlers makes a team, but a squad really needs 10 or 11 to be comfortably off for players through the full season - that lasts from April to September.

We currently have 46 members playing for the 11 teams, and while most play for at least 2 per week the numbers simply don’t add up any more. We need new players at all levels or unfortunately we will soon have to face losing some of the teams on our books.

Steve Jackson

Norcross Bowling Club (Secretary)

Room 511

Norcross

Ext 68717 or 01253 338717 (direct)

Internal e-mail - Jackson Steven DWP FSD Division Services

External e-mail - Steven.Jackson1@dwp.gsi.gov.uk