History

Boscombe Cliff Bowls Club was founded in 1904 and was the second lawn bowls club to be laid in the Bournemouth area. Our green and clubhouse are ideally situated overlooking the cliff top at the corner of Woodlands Avenue and Southbourne Overcliff Drive. Although Boscombe Cliff is a private club, our green is a public one with many first-timers trying their hand on our green. If they take to the sport we encourage them to become members whilst others who are on holiday have gone back home and joined their local clubs throughout England.

We are happy to accommodate touring teams who would like a fixture on our green and any club secretaries wishing to do so should contact our Match Secretary (see Club Officials page).

The pavilion was erected in 1927 with Café facilities which are open to the general public as well as our members.

The green is maintained by an experienced contractor who works tirelessly to provide one of the acknowledged best playing surfaces in the area.

Boscombe Cliff Gardens were opened in 1900 and by 1904, some of the garden elements had already vanished having been replaced by the first lawn bowls green to bear the name of Boscombe Cliff Bowls Club.

In 1910, the gardens covered a 6-acre site, which in addition to the bowls green encompassed a croquet lawn, and two grassed tennis courts as reported by “Mate and Riddle”.  The bowling club was obviously a great success story, for in 1922 permission was given to use the croquet lawn as a second bowling green in 1923.  Why then did bowls cease at this site?

A glance at the Bournemouth Daily Echo on 28th November 1924 tells the story.  “On the night of 26th/27th November a slice of the cliff, some 7ft in depth, had disappeared during a great storm which brought the bowling green to the very edge.  From Boscombe eastward the scour, due to the wash of waves, was phenomenal.  In places, the clay beneath the sand was exposed to a depth of several feet, the force of the waves at the foot of the cliffs causing a crumbling of the surface in parts.  This part of the cliff had already suffered whenever a storm occurred and erosion has been ongoing for several years.

With part of the green disappearing, play continued on the three rinks parallel to the sea whilst a new green was being constructed. The plot of land which was selected is where it is today on the opposite side of the road and further along the cliff at Woodlands Avenue.

Nowadays the maintenance of the greens and surrounds have been handed over to the club who are fully responsible for keeping them in superb condition.  Unfortunately, the flower gardens have been neglected in recent years but hopefully, our band of willing members will continue the improvements made in 2015 in the years to come. In line with other clubs in all sports, a ladies section was formed and has expanded in numbers to be able to enter two teams in the Bournemouth leagues. The first team has done exceptionally well to progress up the table to Division A.

 

  •  The bowls legend David Bryant played a demonstration game against club member Antony Gabb in the 1970s due to our international player Jimmy Davidson not being available due to work commitments. The match was played after the green had been mowed on the introduction of Mower for Bowls Greens – a Dorset/Hampshire promotion. He was very complimentary of our surface on that day.

  • Walter Phillps made history for the club by taking Gold in the Empire Games, a forerunner to the Commonwealth Games, in Cardiff

  • James (Jim) Hobday was another of our members who was partnered with Tony Alcock and David Bryant and won the Triples Gold Medal in Australia after winning the All England Under 25’s Singles

  • Our 3rd medalist, a Pairs Silver was won by Dean Morgan in an often wet session at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.

  • When the Men’s National Championships moved to Worthing in 1974, the previous sponsors Watney’s Red Barrel continued to provide 1000 cans of Pale Ale to the Four producing the highest winning score on opening day, which was won by Peter Gregory, Leslie Pearce, Antony Gabb, and Jimmy Davidson. A good time was had at the Annual Dinner that year!

  • Russell Morgan was we believe the youngest to play for the club at the age of 14 and his Skip on that day was the very aged Sam Brookes.

  • Our first win in the Bournemouth & District League was in 1917 and again in 1934, but it was not until the 1970’s that we became a more frequent winner of the league and created a record of 10 wins in the 11 years from 2002 to 2012.

  • Recently Chris Daniels has become our most successful bowler having been Captain of the Hampshire side which won the Middleton Cup in 2014, the first Hampshire win for 43 years.