Friendliness makes up for any drop in standard

IT'S island bowls finals weekend and the odds are that the majority of winners will come from the Vale Rec and North clubs. It was not always like that, though. Far from it, as two of the island's elder statesmen and women of lawn bowls recalled this week.

Derek Hurford, 79, and Amy Moon, 88, have won more major bowls trophies than they care to remember and have travelled the world to play in and excel at their sport.

The two stem from a golden era of the Guernsey Bowling Club, which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary.

To the layman, the GBC is the Beau Sejour club.

For the majority of its 80 years, the GBC rink was situated where the Beau Sejour children's playground is now, due east of the swimming pool.

The old green closed in 1974 and three years later, in the club's jubilee season, it moved to its current site, adjacent to the Beau Sejour Centre's service road, opposite the netball courts.

Both Hurford and Moon agree, the GBC remains a grand old club.

Hurford is still going strong and plays most weekdays, sometimes twice a day.

A former island pairs and triples champion, Hurford represented the island at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton and appeared at World Bowls in Aberdeen.

'It has changed a helluva lot since I started in 1956 or '57,' said Hurford of the GBC.

'In those days it consisted of quite a lot of elderly gentlemen who were very keen.'

So keen, as it happens, that they would not allow just anyone play, as Hurford well recalls.

But as Hurford improved and established a reputation as a fine player, the invitations to play came in and he has enjoyed playing at the top level until this very day.

The GBC has meant a lot to him and provided him with many happy memories although he says standards are not as high as they once were and most of the best players are members elsewhere.

'In my time, the GBC was the top club. But it's still a fantastic club and the atmosphere very friendly.'

Moon, a multiple island women's singles champion, is, along with Cyril Smith, one of two honorary members of the club, although no longer active.

'I'm going to be 88 but I gave up three years ago,' said the GBC member of more than half-a-century.

Bowls was a huge part of her life and Beau Sejour is where she has spent much of it.

'I played practically every day and twice a day sometimes. We had a lovely ladies' section,' said one the club's most celebrated women players.

Twice a World Bowls representative and with a Commonwealth Games appearance to her name, Moon recalls an era when it was not so easy to become a GBC member.

'When I joined we had to put our name down and be vetted.'

Overseeing this year's celebration has been club president Paul Sargeant.

He has no doubt it still has much to offer and it has been a good summer for a club with 102 members.

A recruitment drive has also brought in eight new members, but more are needed, said Sargeant.

'We were more competitive in years gone by,' he admits.