Please find the April Safeguarding bulletin from the Bowls Development Alliance
Please find the latest news from the easyfundraising team.
Clubs can take advantage of the easyfundraising pack on offer to the first 250 clubs so get your application in quick.
Champion of League Champions 2025 – Saturday 5th April at St. Andrews Cricket & Bowling Club, Burnley
Simon Coupe became a 4th time winner of North Lancs and Fylde County Bowling Association Champion of Champions. He beat Jonathan Lacey 21-20 in a superb final. Thanks to St.Andrews for hosting and everyone who helped out. Excellent day of bowling in the sunshine.
Quarter Final Results:
Jonathan Lacey 21 Callum Danson 5
Andy White 21 Whelan 15
Alan Davies 21 Eamon Hernen 20
Simon Coupe 21 Scott Taylor 11
Semi-Finals
Jonathan Lacey 21 Andy White 19
Simon Coupe 21 Alan Davies 7
Final
Simon Coupe 21 Jonathan Lacey 20
Please find this month’s County newsletter and share with your bowling members
Its now time to register your club for this years’ Bowls Big Weekend, 23rd – 26th May 2025
By participating, your Club can attract new members, raise awareness, and strengthen its ties with the local community.
All Clubs that register will receive a full marketing pack (in early April) to help you promote your event within your local area and on social media.
When you’re registering, select ‘BCGBA’ for Governing Body and then start typing your Club name BEFORE selecting your County. Doing that ensures that your Club appears on the affiliated list.
Simply register your club by clicking this link to the website https://www.bowlsbigweekend.com/club-registration/
Please find the February Safeguarding Bulletin from the Bowls Development Alliance
Places are still available for teams to enter this seasons ‘County League’. The aim of the league is to develop club bowling across the five district regions of our County: Fylde, Preston, Lancaster, Blackburn and East Lancs.
Part of the appeal of this league is the opportunity to play against new players, and on new greens. Open to new and experienced bowlers, open age, teams can be made up of male and female bowlers.
The general structure will be as follows:
If any team is interested in joining the league for the 2025 season, please email secretary.nlfcba@gmail.com
League and Match rules can be viewed on the NLFCBA website
NLFCBA 2025 AGM will be held on Sunday 2nd February at 12pm, at the Canberra Club, Samlesbury Aerodrome, A59 Samlesbury, BB2 7LF.
Representatives from all North Lancs & Fylde affiliated Clubs and Leagues are requested to attend. All bowlers are welcome.
Following the AGM, an update on the BCGBA National Development plan and Q&A session will be held for those who wish to attend.
The BCGBA AGM and Rules Revision Meeting was held yesterday, at Winnington Park, Cheshire, with the key outcomes being summarised below:
• The National Development Strategy was approved with an overwhelming majority. This will see the introduction of a £1 per player, per Club ‘Annual Development Fee’ being introduced. This money, which will be ringfenced, will go directly to expenditure highlighted within the BCGBA National Development Strategy, to support grassroots Clubs to grow and develop. The ‘Annual Development Fee’ will be for a minimum of 3 years, and will be reported on annually.
• Clarification within the Laws of the Sport that any bowl travelling over a footer must be returned.
• Introduction of a maximum weight of a bowl. This has been set at 3lb.
• Clarification within the Laws of the Sport that a disturbed bowl should be treated the same as a disturbed jack (as per existing law).
• Nicotine inhalers have been added to the list of devices that cannot be used on the green during play (unless there is a medical exemption).
• Clarification that players will not be allowed to play in bare or stocking feet.
• A proposal to add practice for Ladies County matches was not carried.
• The 18-23 Open Championship has been amended to 18-25.
• Changes to the structure of the World Club Team Championship were approved. This amends the group structure to round-robin matches for the qualifying rounds. As part of this, the competition name has been changed to the BCGBA Club Team Championship.
Full details will be circulated, in due course, to all Association Secretaries.
Happy New Year to all our clubs, leagues, and bowling members.
NLFCBA AGM
NLFCBA 2025 AGM will be held on Sunday 2nd February at 12pm, at the Canberra Club, Samlesbury Aerodrome, A59 Samlesbury, BB2 7LF.
Representatives from all North Lancs & Fylde affiliated Clubs and Leagues are requested to attend.
Following the AGM, an update on the BCGBA National Development plan and Q&A session will be held for those who wish to attend.
Upcoming Safeguarding Courses & DBS renewals
Prices:
DBS Renewal is Free
Safeguarding Course is £15 for the first person from the club and £8 for the second/extra person(s).
Please text Sue Sinclair on 07515 288102 or email to suesinclair1958@gmail.com to book club members onto the Safeguarding Course and for the DBS renewal.
Note: Anyone attending the course and for DBS renewal will need to bring with them a form of photo ID, Driving Licence/Passport and copy of a utility bill with home address.
DBS certificates need to renewed every 3yrs from the date of issue.
CR2 Forms
An email was sent to all club secretaries in November, requesting completion of the CR2 membership form which we require all clubs to complete for all your bowling members for the past 2024 season. This is so we can ensure that the National Player Registration Database is up to date for our County. To date we have only received 1/3 of completed forms from clubs. Can you please check your emails. Completed forms need to be returned to the County Secretary and County Registrar. Blank forms can be downloaded from the NLFCBA website by clicking this link BCGBA CR2 Bowling Members Form
Many thanks to those clubs that have returned completed forms.
BCGBA Insurance
The British Crown Green Bowling Association (BCGBA) has taken out a new and improved Group Insurance Policy for 2025 and cover, which runs from 1 January 2025 up until 31 December 2025. This replaces the previous Endsleigh Insurance Policy.
The old insurance portal on the BCGBA website is now closed – please do not use..
If members choose to opt in to the new policy they must opt in to the whole policy, they cannot just opt in to parts of the policy.
The cost of the new BCGBA Policy is £55, and a summary of the cover along with the policy document and payment details to the BCGBA, can be found by visiting BCGBA Group Insurance Policy page on the NLFCBA website. Details have also been emailed to all Club and League Secretaries.
County Competitions
Champion of League Champions 2025 – Saturday 5th April at St. Andrews Cricket & Bowling Club, Burnley
All leagues are to submit their 2024 League Merit Winner to County Competitions Secretary, Andy Fleming on 07870 663876 or via Facebook Messenger
Entry fee is £10 and will be collected within 2025 North Lancs & Fylde CBA League Affiliation Fee payment
Dates of other Men’s and Ladies competitions will be coming soon. Please check the North Lancs & Fylde Facebook page, NLFCBA website pages County Competitions and Ladies County Competitions
North Lancs & Fylde CBA County Safeguarding Officer, Sue Sinclair, will be holding several Safeguarding Courses and DBS Certificate Renewal in the New Year (February & March)
Prices:
DBS Renewal is Free
Safeguarding Course is £15 for the first person from the club and £8 for the second/extra person(s).
Please text Sue Sinclair on 07515 288102 or email to suesinclair1958@gmail.com to book club members onto the Safeguarding Course and for the DBS renewal.
Note: Anyone attending the course and for DBS renewal will need to bring with them a form of photo ID, Driving Licence/Passport and copy of a utility bill with home address.
DBS certificates need to renewed every 3yrs from the date of issue.
North Lancs & Fylde County Bowling Association 