Members stories Thorndon Bowls Club David Cattermole

Thorndon Bowls Club

Currently…

We are now in a position in time where we can call upon people who belong to the club, or know of it, or have played against us, to recall some of their memories. We make a start with our current Chairman, David Cattermole, who has a long history with Thorndon Bowls Club but is also well known within the village and community

David’s first link with the village was in attending the Primary School, where Daphne Wells was head, travelling from his home in Thornham Parva to school on a Hayward’s Bus. Moving to Eye Modern School he was soon to return to Thorndon when his working life started at Rex Service Station situated next door to the school where his employers were John and Daphne Wells, the latter still being head. Jack Wells, John’s father has featured in the already published history.

Playing football for Stoke Ash F.C. who’s home ground was at the Kerrison School-in its day one of the best playing surfaces locally- David’s links with the village continued and were strengthened when a colleague, Jack Mayhew, at the garage who often chatted about the game of Lawn Bowls took David to the Bowls Club with the invitation to ‘give it a try’. That started a 40 year journey for David, who was immediately welcomed into the Club and soon found that being a member was more than just about playing bowls, there is also a considerable social life at the Club as well. The late Peter Wright, then Club Captain, and his wife June, Club Secretary (seen as the heartbeat of the Club) were instrumental in providing some tuition. Villages were, and are still, close knit communities and they had both known him during his childhood days in Thornham where David lived and they kept the Post Office.

David will be well known to many villagers, perhaps from the days he may have served you with petrol from the Rex Service Station Forecourt or repaired your car, in the days when technology didn’t require the need to return to the main dealer. Having served his apprenticeship in motor vehicle engineering David spent many happy years working in the village during a period when Rex Service Station added some coaches to its fleet of taxis and minibuses. His underlying interest in coaches saw David move to Galloway when Mr Braybrooke sold his business to them and were seeking to recruit a Traffic Manager where he spent the rest of his working life with several years as managing director until retiring recently.

Leaving the social history and returning to bowling, steadily David gained sufficient experience to play competitively and was selected to play in one of the Club Teams at Eastern Electric at Gt Finborough which saw the start of many successful years competing at various levels right through to playing in the Suffolk County Team and reaching the National Finals on a number of occasions. However, David happily agrees that although the competition on the Green holds a certain attraction, the social aspect of the Club has meant as much to him as the sport as without it David wouldn’t be as regular visitor to the Black Horse or the Community events at the Village Hall.

Having held both the Secretary’s role, and Treasurer of the Club, June retired from an active role within the club only recently having completed FIFTY years of service which is a fantastic achievement and we hope to hear from her in a future article. June’s retirement coincided with David becoming Chairman and he has often commented upon how difficult it has been to follow such a talented and committed club member who naturally knew everything that had gone on for a considerable amount of time!. June, her husband Peter and those mentioned previously in previous articles made the Club a friendly, competitive and sporting arena where members and visitors feel welcomed and that socially we can discuss the game or just ‘chew the fat!’ The Club is looking forward positively and can now boast among some of the best facilities in the area, having been able to invest in improvements to the clubhouse, toilets, storage and general facilities during the last year. (With due regard, and thanks, paid to our Club President John Coy and his family for continued support and understanding). The Green itself, our playing surface, has also had a huge amount of work completed on it and looked fantastic throughout last year thanks to the efforts of our groundsman-and his ‘assistant!’ Maybe we will hear from them in another article…and the Club members can’t wait to get onto the Green for a ‘roll-up’ as soon as allowed although we know it won’t be before the end of April when we ‘always’ officially ‘open’ each year.