FOUNDED 1947
To promote good fellowship in the game of flat green bowls
It was the Essex Vice Presidents Bowling Association which provided the opposition in the match to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Romford Bowling club in August 1948 by which time Albert Dyer, then the club treasurer and also the President of the Essex Vice Presidents Bowling Association had been awarded the O.B.E.
Although Romford lost the match 104 - 113, this did not dampen the festive celebrations which continued afterwards in the King's Hall at the Jubilee Dinner where the toast to the Romford Bowling Club was proposed by Alderman A.W. Piper (Colchester Western B.B.), a former President of the English Bowls Association, Albert Dyer (also an Alderman) replied on behalf of the club. One other feature of note from this Jubilee match was that our former President - Charlie Fancourt - played at No. 2 in a rink which drew their match 13 - 13!
When consideration was given to organising a match to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the club, Romford decided it was time to avenge the defeat inflicted by the Vice Presidents Association on the occasion of our Golden Jubilee in 1948 - we have long memories at Romford!!
Accordingly on Sunday 19th August 1973 Romford met the Essex Vice Presidents Association and emerged the winners by 134 shots to 107! Once again however Charlie Fancourt could still only get a draw 19-19, but then on this occasion he had to carry John Franks and John Hollowbread as well as Jim Skinner.
Our thanks go to Mike Ferris for finding this useful snippet of information.
Quaich Cup
It is also interesting to note that a number of cups have been presented for Association matches against the various Groups, each of which bear the name of the member who presented it. The exception is the Quaich (pronounced Quake) Cup. It appears the cup was presented by John Wilson to the E.V.P.A. for the Albert Dyer Memorial Match and according to the cup the first winners in 1988 were, J. Ward, R. Girling, C. Herriott and C. Leon. After the Memorial Match it was decided with John Wilson’s permission to use the cup for the Group 8 match as John Wilson was a member of a Group 8 club, and there being no cup at the time for this particular match.
Association Badge
Members may be interested to read the letter from Grant Flook on the following page as it concerns the Association Badge.