Match Results
You won’t find coverage of our results on this website… for that you’ll have to visit us on Instagram or Facebook, where you’ll also find the latest news about events taking place at Barry Central Bowling Club.
You may see some posts or images here about things happening around Barry Central Bowling Club too… but our social media platforms are the best forums to stay on top of what’s happening at the club. Check out the VOG On The Jack group on Facebook too for more information about bowls in the Vale of Glamorgan. See The Matches page for links to the CDMBA and Munro Cup hubs.
Social Media
Greenside banners at Barry Central
Barry Central Bowling Club would like to extend huge thanks to our club sponsors A Lake Electrical Services, Squeaky’s Clean Window Cleaning, VOG Fire & Security, Piper’s Wardrobes, Extreme Fitters, Claire Fenton Estate Agent, GrabRSkip and JK Windows for their support this season!
You too can be seen around our green and reach thousands of bowlers in Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and the Valleys with a greenside banner at our club.
Priced at £150 for the entire outdoor season from May to September they are 2m x 750mm and printed in full colour onto double-hemmed vinyl, with eyelets every 50cm. With the printing and design covered by the price it could be the best bargain you get all summer!
If you’re interested in a banner please contact club secretary Jenny Rayment or hire coordinator Julie Chick via the contact form on The Club page and let them know your requirements!
Looking the part
This time last year Barry Central Bowling Club was going into a new season needing a boost. Our new shirts, from only two seasons earlier, hadn’t created the wow factor on the green we’d hoped for so the committee decided it was time to freshen up the appearance on the green and step up the recruitment drive off it.
It was a bold decision but it produced the desired effects. The club had it’s best spring recruitment blitz since most members could remember… although perhaps not so surprising since those who’ve been playing for Central for more than five years now are few and far between.
And on the green our appearance went up several notches too with snazzy new clobber… courtesy of Kidwelly-based Bowls Kingdom and their Full Bias tops. While below the waist there was a change too, with black becoming the official colour for the leg coverings… both Wednesday and Saturday matches.
The new look certainly got us noticed, with flattering comments coming thick and fast… while the recruitment success was also met with congratulatory remarks.
So a season on and we’re looking to build the profile further, there won’t be a new kit this time (we like our new threads) but we’ll be pushing the club in the community again… so come on down to Gladstone Gardens this season and join the Central revolution!
March of the Dambusters
Inaugural winners of the Gordon Yeo Trophy in 2022, Barry Central finally get the chance to host this year’s event on Sunday, 17 May, after failing to get beyond the group stages in subsequent years.
Organised by Russ Kitely, chairman of Penarth-based Group 617 which supports veterans in and around South Wales, the event commemorates the Dambusters raids on three German dams on the night of 16/17 May 1943.
Named after Yeo − who grew up at 52 Castleland Street, Barry Dock, and got his first taste of school at Holton Primary − the trophy is currently in Millwood’s possession after they became the fourth winners in so many years following us, Barry Athletic and Barry Romilly.
Yeo joined the RAF in 1941, passing out as a gunner, and his crack marksmanship saw him posted to 617 Squadron in March 1943. Two months later he was chosen to participate in Operation Chastise, the famous mission to target the Mohne, Edersee and Sorpe hydroelectric dams using special bouncing bombs developed by Barnes Wallis.
The Mohne and Edersee were breached during the raids, causing huge flooding in the Ruhr and Eder valleys, but the Sorpe sustained only minor damage. Returning to England over the North Sea after the mission Yeo’s Lancaster, flying as ED887 AJ-A, was shot down by the Wijk-aan-zee battery.
Sergeant Yeo’s body was washed up on 27 May. He was just 20 years old. He is buried alongside ED887 AJ-A’s other six crew members at Bergen General Cemetery.
The raids were immortalised in cinematic history by the 1964 film, 633 Squadron, directed by Walter Grauman about the exploits of a “fictitious” World War II fighter-bomber squadron and itself based on a 1956 novel by former Royal Air Force officer Frederick Smith.
Down Memory Lane
As a club we’ve struggled to survive in recent times but thanks to the hard work of current members, especially former treasurer Steve Walker (a lifetime member in appreciation of his contribution to keeping the club alive), we are now in a sustainable position with a host of keen and committed new recruits, both men and women, in the last few years giving us hope of a return to former glory.
So down memory lane we go for a bit of club history (circa 1919, a decade after the club was formed) that appears on the People’s Collection Wales website. And what a team it was, a year later the class of 1920 was crowned the best in the land with a win against Grange in the final of the Carruthers Shield, in only the second season the illustrious Welsh National Championships had taken place.
I’m sure there have been a few more good runs in the competition over the century since and, we’re hoping, there’ll be more to come as we head into the second century of Barry Central’s journey around the bowling greens of Wales.
Play and display
Barry Central Bowling Club had a lot to be grateful for before the 2024 season got underway thanks to former member Malcolm Penny, who sadly passed away in 2023, bequeathing a considerable sum of money to the club and his collection of Cameleon bowls samples.
Malcolm, who had connections to Barry and Shrewsbury, was an instrumental figure in the development of composition bowls and came up with a unique range of more than 20 colour variations brought to life by Cameleon. The bowls are proudly on display at the club, with huge appreciation to Malcolm and his family for their great generosity.
The Cameleon Collection sits right next to a set of woods, circa 1913-14, donated to the club by the family of W Fifield in February 1988 that travelled all the way to Barry from New Zealand. Details of how they came to be at the club have got lost down the years… if anyone knows the story we’d be very grateful if you’d let us know!
