Who are we?

The Lincoln & District Indoor Bowling Club was founded in 1971 by a group of Federation Bowlers with a four rink green sited in the city's Boultham Park. It has since evolved into an 8 rink facility, which boasted upwards of 1500 members at its peak. The Club celebrated its 50th year in 2022 and is in the process of recovering from the COVID pandemic and the affect it has had on our membership levels.

We are a CASC registered organisation, run as a not for profit Club, and are open to all members of the community.

The Club has the benefit of Meeting Room facilities, a Restaurant and a Cafe (Cafe Jaxx) which is open to Members and Non Members alike on a daily basis.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Our facility is widely recognised as one of the top indoor bowling clubs in the UK within the sport. Pre COVID the club enjoyed over 1100 members sharing our facility. This number fell to around 600 members during the pandemic and is now on the road to recovery with our 1000th member recently recruited. We have recently witnessed a number of Indoor Bowls Clubs folding through lack of membership and ever increasing costs. We recognise that we need to adapt our offer to appeal to a wider range of people within the community. This is part of our strategy to develop and sustain the Bowls Club.

How our Project will be United By Birmingham 2022

The 2022 Commonwealth Games was an inspiration to many people to get active and 'community aware'. Our vision is to share the facility more widely within our community and enable more people of all ages and abilities to experience not only indoor bowls, but all of the other social aspects that we have to offer. In order to realise this, we need to be accessible to all and have the ability to effectively communicate our activities to the people frequenting the club which in turn will help to grow and retain our club membership. 

How we'll spend the money raised

The money we raise will be spent in three key areas:

1. To improve access into and within the Club for all participants. This includes improving accessability to the club, onto the bowling rinks and to toilet facilities. (e.g Ramps and Door Access)

2. To improve communication within the Club both bowling and non bowling related by means of a new interactive LED scoreboard and communications facility, with the aim of rendering old fashioned notice boards redundant.

3. To provide a means to attract external revenue into and therefore help sustain the future of the Club by advertising local services.

Robert Pitchford, Chairman of the Boultham Park Advisory Group, presents a cheque to Danny Brown, General Manager at the Indoor Bowls Club, in recognition of there successful attempt of achieving a world record 62 hours non stop bowls match. A special mention to the bowlers – Dean, Andy, Paul, Collette, Stan & Lisa.

Robert said “the club are an integral part of the park and their hospitality to both BPAG and the CofLC Community Engagement team is most appreciated”.

Community impact

We are delighted to host a number of community Wellness and Well Being sessions within the club, including a Tuesday morning Mindfulness Doodling session in partnership with the Lincoln City Council, as well as regular sessions for disabled bowlers and a Saturday Junior Club (Under 18s). We also open up the club to local supported living organisations to welcome young adults with learning disabilities and additional support needs.

Our 'Bowl For Health' sessions are a recent innovation, designed to attract many local everyday people seeking social companionship.

The Club also offers a Social Membership (Non bowling) offering regular events such as bingo, themed nights, quiz nights, craft clubs and coffee mornings, and is a haven for parkrun members that enjoy our Cafe Jaxx facility after their morning run each Saturday.

How you can play your part

There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.

1. Make a pledge. Don't delay if you're going to support us because momentum is key to our success!

2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.

3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out - particularly if we can upgrade our scoreboard screen system to accommodate modern business advertising!

4. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, maybe a sponsored activity or similar, use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won't need any bank details. Just a fun idea!