The Bombshells Get Bowled Over by Bowling Lessons!

Never let it be said that the BBH Bombshells WI lets the grass grow under their feet.  July has been a busy, busy month.

On Tuesday, everyone who could assembled at the Horsham District Indoor Bowls Club. For many of us it was our first visit, but after such a great night, it may not be our last.  That we had such fun was due in great part to the patience and sense of humour of those kind members who undertook to tutor us in the finer arts of bowling! 

We were warmly welcomed, and after a quick chat and orientation it was confirmed that there are only two rules: firstly to have a fun evening and secondly and most importantly to wear only socks or official bowling shoes while on the green.

We divided into 6 teams, put our socks on and climbed down onto the green.  We started with child sized bowls, listened oh so carefully as to how we were to hold them, aim them and hit the target! Simple.... only the bowls themselves are biased and suddenly it was not so simple! You can't aim for the jack, no, no, no, you have to stand at angle and bowl a few degrees to the right or to the left of where you want the bowl to end up. The amount of force has to be right as well,  too little and it won't go far enough, too much and it ends up in the ditch or lurches wildly to the right or to the left off into a neighbouring rink.  

Apologies to the poor chaps trying to play a league game on one of the rinks. It might have been a tad noiseier than they had envisaged because they probably hadn't expected 30 members of the WI to appear on the rinks beside them.  But like everyone we met, they took it in good spirits - and bowled on regardless!

After our lessons, and lots of ends, we managed a quick pause for a drink at the bar, and then  had just time for a Crackajack tournament where for each end the five closest bowls to the jack are awarded points, which are totted up at the end and a champion declared!

Thank you so very much to all the club members who gave up their evening to introduce us to indoor bowls. We had a grand time. Details of the club, learn-to-bowl-courses, coaching, membership, leagues, events and the wide range of social activities, can be found on https://www.hdib.club/ .

The Bombshells month started with the Village Fete on 5th July with the ladies running  our regular cake stall.  Despite a wet start to the afternoon, the weather cleared up and folk turned out in numbers to enjoy everything that was on offer. There was a fantastic display of home made cakes, buns and biscuits which proved very popular.  Thanks to those who cooked, manned the stall, and those who bought the cakes.

The Morning and Evening bookclubs met as usual. On this occasion we discussed Yellowface by R. F. Kuang which elicited a variety of reponses and some lively discussions. Our current read is Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris.

The middle of the month saw a trip to the Wild Kitchen at Knepp for coffee and cake - thanks, as always, for making the arrangements Lorena. It was a good morning and we had a great chat. 

We like a bit of a party us Bombshells, and our in house fundraising has been so successful that we held a 'Please, please, please  eat all you can, otherwise it'll get wasted' party at the Scout Hall.  The theme was European foods.  We chose food and drink from France, Spain and Germany to compare and enjoy. The tables duly groaned, the Bombshells duly munched and quaffed and the evening ended with a combined food and language quiz. Another fun time. See the gallery below for photos from the evening.