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Club in the Spotlight:Woodford-cum-Membris the brink thanks to the tremendous concerted effort of volunteers and club members


flooding in,” said Rigby. “I was humbled, really.”


When Rigby took on the role, he was fully aware of the lengthy list of hurdles that lay ahead, and the danger that, if those problems weren’t addressed, the club would cease to exist.


“In the local leagues that we play in, there have been two or three clubs who have gone under, mainly due to lack of members,” he said.


“The green was just like a desert. It


wasn’t flat, it had lumps taken out of it - it was in terrible condition, basically.” “We didn’t have an awful lot of money available so we really had to beg, steal and borrow… well, maybe not steal, but you get the idea - we needed whatever help we could get.”


“We were very lucky in that we found a couple of local greenkeepers, Ken Barber and Dean Broughton, who also had bowls experience. They came over and helped us out and really gave us a headstart. “They heard about the situation as Ken stays locally, but even though Dean is from Leicestershire he would still come down with his machines once a week to help us out.” “Our club members have been brilliant. Though the average age is quite elderly, I just said to them, ‘This is what we need to do. We’ll get the younger members to do the lumping and humping but anything you can do to help us out would be much appreciated’.


“I was staggered how many turned out to help. Our members were like Trojans, they really worked hard. It was a real club effort.”


Central to the club’s revival and its ongoing survival has been forging strong links with the local community. Never was this more apparent than when the club received a fantastically generous donation of hardware from well-known builders merchants, Travis Perkins. Though kindly bestowed with the raw materials, the club had to look to the community for expertise in putting the resources to use. “I approached Travis Perkins on the off chance that they might help us and they certainly did,” Rigby revealed. “They gave us about £10,000 worth of building blocks. That was an absolute godsend. “However, though they gave us the materials we also needed people to help us lay those slabs. That’s where the local community came in to it.


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