Rink resurfacing at Chesterton Bowls Club

To replace the playing surface on rinks 7 & 8. The current indoor playing surface on rinks 7 & 8 is now over 27 years old and is no longer fit for purpose: the seams are slitting and the underlay is damaged.

We have around 1000 full members. The majority of our members are pensioners and our club is the only place where they can take part in gentle exercise and, just as importantly, social interaction, as many of them are on their own.

We also boast a healthy junior section within our club. We have adapted the facilities to allow disabled people to participate in our sport and we have many disabled bowlers within our club. We have specially designed wheelchairs for disabled bowlers and provision is made for these wheelchairs to enter the playing surface.

The playing surface at rinks 7&8 is a little more sectioned off than the main playing area (rinks 1-6), and it is very popular with our disabled and physically and mentally impaired players, who sometimes lack the confidence of more able bodied players.

We provide facilities for the local community to come and play sport at a very reasonable rate. We also offer the chance for the general public to come and try out bowls or visit the cafe. We allow members to bring non members in to try bowls up to three times before they have to join as members. We also have Parkinson's and Dementia groups come in to play bowls and we don't insist on these participants being members.

As a bowls club we have to diversify away from bowls sometimes in order to be sustainable and we invite local businesses to come in and use our facilities for corporate bowls evenings. We also can cover the rinks with a protective flooring to allow access to conferences and other non-bowl hire, this is occasional and supports our income, in what is a very challenging financial environment, especially with massively increased energy costs.

We have recently been selected to host a World Bowls Tour event in March 2026. The UK Open will involve the top 32 bowlers in the world taking part in a 3 day competition at our club so the facilities need to be at their best.