Welcome to Abington Bowling Club

MANY THANKS to all who attended the traditional 'Our Day' event. The 2025 season began with a fantastic turn-out of 36 members, including six new recruits. A spirited game was won marginally by the 'home' team, 74 shots to 67. Much credit is also extended to our greenkeeper, Kevin Johnson, for providing an immaculate and pacey surface immediately ready to go for the new campaign.

 ​

Friendly fixtures commence this week, with two women's games and a Thursday match at home to Roade. Please support our hard-working captains Christine Ball, Reg Jones and Gill Crossley.

​

****

​

07/04/2025: ALL COUNTY AND NATIONAL competition draws have now been made by Bowls Northants and Bowls England. Links can be found here for men's and here for women's/mixed. The main difference this year is that the Club 2-Fours tournaments have been merged into a single comp, open to both male and female bowlers. 

​​

Elsewhere, the fixture pages have been fully updated with this year's schedules. The 2025 season will commence with the traditional 'Our Day' event on Saturday, 19th April. All members are invited to help kick off the new season, and welcome Christine Ball to the Saturday captaincy, the first woman to hold that role in our club's history.

​

The Monday triples league A- and B-teams will travel to Northampton West End on Friday, 2nd May, looking to wrest back the Jubilee Vase. UPDATE: The draw for the Dave Jones Memorial Trophy, our early-season 3-wood singles club competition, has been posted. The first round will begin on Friday, 25th April with the two finalists decided by the following Thursday. Tony O'Leary begins his defence of the trophy against Dave Fage while last year's men's singles runner-up Joe Kovacs will play Abington's newest member, Alice Moore.

​

To all members, welcome - or welcome back! We look forward to seeing you all very soon.

​

****

​

01/02/2025: ABINGTON B.C. sends its condolences to the family and friends of our former president Pete Cook, who has died aged 90.​ Known to all as 'Cookie', he was a dedicated presence on the club committee during a seminal period in our history, serving as president in 1984. That same season, he won the club pairs, partnering the late Alan Ward. They claimed the title again in 1986.​

​

The 1980s was a busy decade for Abington, with membership peaking at over 160, the establishment of a women's section and heated debates over a possible relocation and even building an indoor green. Cookie was club secretary throughout much of this, and worked tirelessly to steer the ship, driven by his conviction that Abington should never settle for second best.

 

On the green, Cookie's time at Abington was book-ended by appearances at the national championships. In 1975, he was part of a fours rink, skipped by Vic Cooper, who qualified as county runners-up. But his finest hour came in 1993, when he won the Northants county triples, alongside Don Harris and Robin Brown. It is still the last time an Abington bowler has won a major county championship.

​​

Although he left Abington a few years later, the club forever remained in Cookie's heart, even long after he stopped playing bowls. He was always a popular guest, regularly turning up to support events and reminiscing the glory days. UPDATE: Cookie's funeral will be held on Wednesday 5th March, 12:15pm at the Counties Crematorium (NN4 9RN) with the wake straight after at Northampton Saints Sports Club (NN3 2TA).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​