SMALL CLUB, BIG HEART ‐ CHEAM CBC by Brian Maddocks
and tournaments, whereas we typically have to practice squad rotation to give everyone a fair share of games and were able in 2024 to enter separate teams of 7 or 8 players for both the SECF South East Challenge and the new Southern Challenge Premier Division weekend. The idea of representing the club is instilled into most members from a very early stage, friendly matches are arranged to give people a taste of match experience to those nervous about taking the plunge and potential team members for each match are personally contacted about their available dates, usually before dates are fixed. Similarly, the vast majority of members take part in our internal competitions, with new members strongly encouraged to try out our high handicap GC singles event and our two doubles events. With only one lawn, we are rather forced to make most of our competitions like small‐scale tournaments, with several ½ day blocks, followed by a ½ day knockout finals stage. This works really well though, as the knockout stages become quite an event, with most participants ( and even those
not involved ) spectating ( and sometimes being offered cake ). Our level doubles GC event where the highest handicappers are paired with the club’s top players is particularly successful at building a sense of community and encouraging people to play with those they wouldn’t normally meet on the lawn. Finally, as well as regular social events like the annual club meal, barbecues, quizzes, “Christmas cracker”, a croquet skills gymkhana and other ad hoc jollity, we run an extensive “Winter Wanderings” programme during our lawn closure period in January and February. This offers a mixture of walks, games, theatre visits and cinema live screenings, ten pin bowling, museum outings, croquet videos and restaurant meals. Even bell ringing, a hindu temple and folk dancing have appeared on the menu! All these social events of course foster a greater sense of everyone‐knows‐ everyone else, which is so conducive to a happy club atmosphere. We hope some of that is helpful for other clubs and would love to hear from others who have good ideas we could usefully copy too.
12 years ago Cheam Croquet and Bowls Club was born, inheriting the beautiful bowls lawn in Cheam Park which was under threat of closure. Since its inception, the club has enjoyed a very strong culture of member ownership. We currently have a 14‐strong team of volunteer mowers ( almost every member fit and strong enough to handle our large Allett mower), and the vast majority of members contribute in some way, whether in other aspects of lawn maintenance, clubhouse cleaning, building maintenance, match catering, coaching, organising social events, regular newsletters, running internal competitions or managing teams for league matches and tournaments. Most of that is probably true of most other clubs of course, and we are always willing to learn from other clubs’ good ideas, but a couple of things that seem to work particularly well for us that may be of interest to others are as follows. We continually hear from other clubs ( including much larger ones ), that they struggle to raise teams for matches
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