Mid Wales Bowling Association

When I accepted the suggestion from the Mid Wales Management Committee to write the history of the association from 1912  -  2012,  little did I know that there were no minutes available before 1964, it therefore, unfortunately, made the task much more difficult. There was a summary of events on this web-site history page which I wrote when the association website went live in 2000 and has been included in the Welsh Bowling Association handbook for their centenary year in 2004, but obviously much had happened in the first 50 years of the association which has not been recorded.

I am truly indebted to Mr Derek Mansley from Llandrindod Wells for his chronicled document of events compiled over a considerable period of time, trawling the local newspaper sports pages including, the Wellington Journal, Montgomery Express, Radnor Times and many more publications, also the county’s libraries in search of information about bowls in Mid Wales.  I also acknowledge the contribution from David Davies MBE (Knighton),  Edgar Thomas and Tom Jermin  (Brecon)  and Brian Maund (Llandrindod Wells), who together have supplied me with a wealth of information and dates, but without the contribution made by Derek Mansley, it would not have been possible to achieve or indeed do justice to the 100 years of history of the Mid Wales Bowling Association.

Whilst I undertook the task of compiling the various contributions including the reading of almost 50 years of minutes, it is David Davies, Clive Barrett, Brian Maund, Derek Mansley and Ormond Davies who we have to thank for proof reading this commemorative article which will be of interest to everyone and obviously many bowlers. However whilst writing the history over the winter months of 2011/2012 to the best of my ability, I realised how little most people know about what has gone on before in bowls in Mid Wales or indeed Wales.

Hopefully this history will provide that information for everyone and when completed will be put on the Mid Wales Bowling Association website, so that it may be added to or adjusted in the future. Despite the time it has taken to write and the lack of minutes and publications, I am pleased that I have been able to restore some of that lost history back to the County and I have enjoyed the task.  Our heartfelt thanks once again to Derek Mansley for his massive contribution to this history.

The history adopts a quarterly approach ie,
1912  -  1937     (The Formative Years)
1937  -  1962     (Continued Progress)
1962  -  1987     (Trouble in the Camp)
1987  -  2012     (The Last Quarter)

Eddie Williams
Hon Secretary