Welcome to Willow Bank Bowling Club

Strawberry Fayre Sunday , 18th July at 2.00pm.

Thanks to all our visitors who supported the Summer Fete. Our next social event is the Strawberry Fayre. This is our family event and is open to everyone. Stalls include Tea and Coffee, Home baking with a good helping of fresh strawberries and Ice Cream. The bar will also have a large selection of soft drinks for our younger guests.

Tickets are : Adult £3.00, Children £1.00 are available at the gate. Other stalls include :

• Jam & Tablet
• Guess the dolls birthday
• Target bowls

and games for the children (weather permitting). Hopefully a fun day for all the family and friends.

SBA District Finals Success Thursday, 10th June

Thanks to all officials, members , visitors and players who helped to make the District Finals night at Willowbank a resounding success. Douglas Johnston (SBA District 31 Councilor) acknowledged the assistance of all the district umpires who officiated throughout the district stage of the national championships. He presented President Allan Swan with two pendants, the first acknowledges the finals day at Willowbank, the second is to commemorate the 175th Anniversary of the club's constitution. Mrs. Morag Johnston presented the finalists with their medals at the celebration supper after the match.

The photos are now available for viewing and downloading from here. We apologise for the delay in presenting the images. This is due to the large volume of coding required to present the images.

A special thanks to the kitchen and bar staff who served refreshments to our visitors throughout the evening.

Green Staff

The committee acknowledges the efforts made by our green keeper and his staff over the past two weeks. The green was running at almost 11 seconds, providing the audience with tight , compact heads and highly competitive bowling.

Photographer

The club would like to thank one of our local residents for his assistance in recording the event on our behalf. We intend to publish the images in a gallery page when available.

Finally, congratulations to all our district winners who will be representing us at the Joint national championships in Ayr commencing on Wednesday , 28th July 2010.

Invitation to new bowlers.

If you have never tried bowling and would like to experience a coaching session, please contact the Club Coach . Dress code is normally informal (collared shirt /blouse , trousers or skirt) with smooth soled heelless shoes. Bowls will be supplied.

Appealing to our younger audience.

Would you like to try bowling as part of your physical Education (PE) classes? If you attend one of the primary or secondary schools within the West end (G3, G11, G12, G13, G20), then contact the club coach or youth project. (see contact page for details).

History of Willowbank Bowling Club

The history of Willowbank is entwined with its host city, Glasgow and celebrates the 175th anniversary in June 2010. As the city expanded Westwards, the club moved from hapthe city centre adjacent to Blythswood Square, along Sauchiehall Street to Willowbank Crescent. In 1888 [3] the club directors decided to purchase the land adjacent to Victoria Crescent Road in Hillhead. This move was prompted by the Glasgow Act (1891) which purchased green areas within the city boundaries and authorized expansion both westwards towards the river Kelvin and southwards into Renfrewshire and beyond. Both clubhouse and green were moved to the present site in 1895.

Club Badge and the City of Glasgow[1]

The club badge depicts willow trees and emphasises its link with the City of Glasgow by the inclusion of the Coat of Arms. The first green was located in sauchyhall Road at the western confines of the city. It was known locally as the Sauchyhall Road Green.

Business Links Project

The club relies on voluntary donations of specialist help to support activities. In an effort to acknowledge these donations and create a sustainable mechanism, we would like to develop a business partnership project which would publicize our links with businesses, their products and services. The intention is to create new funding streams for the club and provide a network of reliable specialists . If you run a business or think you may be interested, please contact the Business Links Project.

Youth Project

On Wednesday , 16th September 2009 the Scottish Parlliament held a debate on the findings of the HMIE inspections into physical education accross the 32 district councils in Scotland. Their findings suggest that that more than 60% of pupils attending school receive less than 2 hours of physical education per week. Local authorities receive 90% of all sports budgets but very few have complied with the 2004 Single Outcome agreement on physical sport. The worst statistics are those of girls in S2 - S4 classes. One of the targets identified within the report action plans are the development of community sports hubs. The lack of intrest in this topic was evident by the very poor attendance of MSP's in the chamber.

The club would like to hear from anyone with experience running youth projects and working with children's activity groups. Unlike many sporting activities, bowling has a reputation as An Old Man's Sport. If this is your view, you may be pleasantly surprised!!!

Some of our new members and residents have commented on the lack of youth activities within Willowbank. The controlling body within Scotland (Scottish Bowling Association) has an integrated youth policy and will support all initiatives which encourage the development of the sport amongst our young people. Here within Glasgow, the council supports a number of schemes which integrate bowling into community and education. If you would like to contribute , please contact us at the Youth Project

Articles and Club News

If you are running any events and wish to have them published on the website, you can post the details here.

Website Updating and maintenance 2010.

During the next few months we hope to start implementing the new structure and design for the website. This will include some automated (dynamic) content which will be generated to coincide with dates and other events in the club diary.

We have now implement a new navigation system to provide context options (tasks associated with the parent pages). For example, if you want to apply for membership, you would expect to see details of what membership entails and how to apply.

Rather than implementing a javascript menu system (which has its limitations and may be disabled on your browser for security reasons), we prefer to offer static options. This means that the menu at the top will change to support tasks and content. To provide clarity and support learning, a number of other options will be available.

If you are experiencing any difficulty using the site or wish to comment on it, please use our links on the contact page. Your suggestions and critique are always welcome.