Taking on all-comers


Introducing the competitive and indefatigable Ron Rowden BY DAVID RHYS JONES (BWBA PATRON)


I


n the world of wheelchair bowling, you will find there are those content to play against people with similar disabilities and others who yearn to play on equal terms with the able-bodied. While there is nothing wrong with the former, you have to admire the drive of a man like Ron Rowden, who, shirking the ‘disabled’ label, has become a highly respected and successful bowler in (and beyond) the county of Essex.


Ron, a true Cockney, who was born in Bethnal Green in February, 1946, broke his neck at work in 1979 when a roof collapsed at the Ford tractor plant in Basildon. “Fortunately, my foreman had been trained in first aid, and he made sure no-one moved me before the paramedics arrived. I was so seriously injured that I was in hospital for more than three years,” recalls Ron. Quite remarkably, it was due to an exchange of physiotherapists between England and Holland that Ron discovered a new sport, when a Dutch physio announced that they were going to try bowls. “We thought we were going to a ten-pin bowling alley, but it turned out to be an indoor bowls club - Romford I think,” says Ron. “I hadn’t played bowls before, but I loved it - and, after two-and-a-half hours, they had to drag me off the green.” When the physio returned to the Netherlands, that was the end of bowls at Barts, but Ron could not get the game out of his mind, and, when he was finally discharged from hospital, he looked for a local bowls club in the Basildon area.


“I joined a disabled bowls group in Tilbury, then found that a new club called Jack’s Centre was going to open at Latchingdon, so I became a member there,” Ron says. Ron was soon making waves


with FODBEC - Friends of Disabled Bowlers in Eastern Counties - and it was Tony Allen, the driving force behind FODBEC (and co-Patron of the BWBA), who encouraged him to try his hand outdoors.


“In those days, bowls clubs were not well disposed to having wheelchairs on their greens, so at first no-one wanted to know,” explains Ron. “But I was invited along to the Ford Sports club, so that they could assess me, and I could assess them.”


The club made some small adjustments to their facilities - ramps and disabled toilets - and welcomed their new member. “By an amazing coincidence, the foreman who was present when I had my accident, was a member there,” recalls Ron. “I hadn’t even realised he was a bowler, but he soon made himself known. His name was Reg.” After a few happy years at Ford Sports, Ron joined the Basildon club in 2003, then, when it folded in 2008, he threw his lot in with another local club, Gloucester Park - and it should be noted that he won the Singles championship at all three clubs.


Indeed, he won the Singles and Pairs at Ford Sports, every club title during the last summer at Basildon, and has already snaffled the Singles, the Two-wood Singles and the Mixed Pairs titles at Gloucester Park.


He was Basildon & District Singles champion in 2010, and runner-up in the Thurrock & District Singles this summer. At county level, he was runner-up in the Essex Benevolent Singles in 1999, and winner of both the unbadged Singles in 2001 and the Essex & Suffolk Open Singles in 2011.


“Attitudes to disabled bowlers have improved over the years,” Ron reports. “I honestly believe that my team-mates and


opponents don’t see my disability, and accept me on completely equal terms - and that is exactly how I would want it to be.” He regrets that there are still a few bowlers - mainly among those who run the sport at club level - who need to change their attitude to wheelchair bowlers, but, on the whole, he is delighted with the way things are. “I’ve had a great bowls career, and hopefully there will be many more years to come,” says Ron. “Two of the highlights were representing England on the


Ron Rowden overcame adversity to compete against able-bodied bowlers


to Tony Gubba and Pam Drew, who helped him enormously at the start of his bowling career, and to Dave Hanniford, the captain of Ford Sports. Says Ron: “Without Tony, in particular, I would not be where I am today. He has been a champion of the wheelchair cause - and a very good friend to me. In fact, I’m a very lucky man, and owe so much to so many people I can call friends, who have influenced me along the way.” Although she does not play bowls, Ron’s wife Heather has


world stage, in Malaysia in 2003 and South Africa this year (2011).” In South Africa, he came third in the Men’s Singles, and the Men’s Pairs - in which, amusingly, he was paired with a women. “The organisers mis-read her name, and thought she was a man,” he laughs. “But we had no option but to play on, and Irene Church and I bagged the bronze.” Ron, who, like his England colleagues, paid his own way to South Africa, felt at a


My team-mates and opponents don’t see my disability and accept me on equal terms


56 Issue 24


disadvantage compared with the bowlers from most of the other countries, who were either heavily subsidised or had the whole trip paid for by their national associations. What is the secret of his success? “I feel I must have a competitive streak that keeps me going,” he says. “I concentrate and try to win, but it’s important to enjoy the game, too, and the social side of bowls is one of its best selling points.” He pays tribute to Tony Allen,


been supportive of him, and is proud of what he has achieved. “It was very hard for Heather when I had my accident, because we had two small children - one four-years-old, and the other only three months,” he says. Now Ron and Heather have six grandchildren - three boys and three girls - between the ages of six months and sixteen years. Ron tells a great story of how Chloe, now 16, came along to watch a game at Billericay some thirteen years ago - and got involved in a way only a three-year-old could.


“It was a Singles match in which I was playing really well, and my opponent fired and hit two of my shots off the rink,” Ron recalls. “Chloe leapt to her feet, ran on to the rink, pointed her finger at my opponent, and said: ‘Don’t you dare hit my Granddad’s woods like that!’” Perhaps a bit of Ron’s


competitive spirit had rubbed off on little Chloe!


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