Driving through the glorious Leicestershire countryside towards England’s smallest County, I was reminiscing about the many times I made this journey when playing County competitions in my ‘home’ County of Leicestershire. There are a very few Bowls England affiliated clubs in Rutland -Market Overton BC being one of them.
The club has made great progress in recent years; running membership recruitment sessions, applying and receiving all the necessary funding to build a new disabled toilet facility and in 2015 bringing honour to the club by bringing home the Bowls Leicestershire County Women’s Pairs title.
The welcome by the club was indeed a warm one. My car temperature gauge recorded 27.5⁰ – Phew.
Market Overton is quintessentially an English Village and has a bowling green to enhance.
It was clear that the club, led by their hard working secretary Annette Oliver, had really made a special effort. The buffet lunch was absolutely superb.
The wonderful ladies in the kitchen
Yum yum -before the gravy
The supper was completely homemade and consisted of Chicken, new potatoes and vegetables, followed by gorgeous sweets namely homemade sherry trifle and a delicious cheesecake which I simply had to sample after consuming a gorgeous trifle (oh how it did remind me of the bygone days when every club made sherry trifle!)
A raffle raised £208.00 for the Club and everyone was delighted to support this small but efficiently-run friendly club with their super facilities.
The match was indeed ‘friendly’ and although The Friends recorded a victory, everyone was a winner. Exhausted, we returned home but content that we had all enjoyed a lovely day in Market Overton. On behalf of ‘The Friends’ sincere thanks to the club for a super day.
Tony Allcock MBE (Captain of the Day – with the help of Adie Lloyd!!)