British Wheelchair Bowls Association
BWBA National Accessibility Survey
The British Wheelchair Bowls Association gets regular queries and questions from bowls clubs seeking advice on how to help wheelchair bowlers. Clearly there is a will in the bowls community to look positively on this subject. With that in mind the BWBA is looking to start a directory of bowls clubs, both indoors and outdoors, and what wheelchair accessible facilities they may, or may not, have.
We all know of web-sites that will offer to list bowls clubs: they are all fine. But there is not a list of bowls clubs showing wheelchair accessibility. The BWBA is keen to ask for help from all clubs to answer three simple questions which will help start and shape the BWBA’s hoped-for directory of wheelchair friendly clubs…
Q1 What wheelchair facilities do you have? Ramps? Toilets? Parking?
Q2 How many bowls wheelchairs do you have?
Q3 How many bowlers at your club bowl from a wheelchair?
If there is any other information that you want to pass on, please feel free to do so; thank you.
Please send your replies to ianblackmore@bwba.org.uk
How Wheelchair Accessible is Your Club
Q) What is the Club to do?
Q) What do they have to do?
British Wheelchair Bowls Association Chairman, Ian Blackmore offers a personal view on some of the issues affecting wheelchair access in bowls clubs.
A statement sometimes heard by wheelchair bowlers going to a bowls club for the first time runs as follows : “Oh, we haven’t had a wheelchair bowler here before which is why you couldn’t through the front door/onto the green/into the toilet (delete as necessary!)”
The keenly fought annual fixture between the two sets of bowlers sharing Stoke Mandeville IBC took place as part of the BWBA’s Christmas celebrations. The BWBA had won the last two meetings, last year’s margin of victory was 144 – 89; a ‘not bad’ 55 shots, so the wheelies were looking for three in a row.
FANTASTIC FUNDRAISING SUCCESS AT ST. MARTINS BC
The
BWBA is always pleased to pass on good news for wheelchair bowlers when it hears
about it. Frank Harwood from St. Martins BC near Hereford has been in touch with
BWBA Chairman, Ian Blackmore to tell him his good news on the purchase of some
’Buggies’ and alterations to the Club. Frank has allowed us to use his Press
Release on the website and you can read it in full below. Thank you Frank and
very well done…and by the way is £19,000 a fund-raising records for one club?Uptown Top Ranking for Kevin in the nationals
This
year’s National wheelchair bowls championships have just taken place at Stoke
Mandeville IBC in Aylesbury. BWBA officials run the event on behalf of
WheelPower, the governing body for wheelchair sport in the UK.
Competitor numbers were up on last year with several bowlers making their
debuts in these long-running championships.
An
open event for wheelchair bowlers with two titles up for grabs – pairs and
singles, as well as the national ranking points to go with the singles win.
BWBA
TOP TEN
National Rankings
1 Kevin Woolmore 423
2 John Appleton 330
3 Percy Powell 322
4 Lea Davis 271
5 George Ridgeon 229
6 Ron Rowden 164
7 Robert Dixon-Smith 148
8 Paul Brown 144
9 Steve Clark 121
10 Allan Cunningham 119
