A warm Devon welcome!

Welcome to the official Abbrook Park Bowling Club website! We are ideally situated for touring teams to “call in” either on their way to their hotel in Torquay or to enjoy a friendly game before leaving Devon, and to enjoy our lovely Devon cream teas. The club was founded in 1982 and is located to the north of Kingsteignton, less than a mile from the A380, the main dual carriageway leading to Torbay.

The Club has over 50 playing members, and teams are entered in the Mid Devon League, Over 55 League and Gallery League (Ladies). The Club also takes part in County Competitions, as well as playing local teams in friendly matches both at home and away.

New players of any age are welcomed at any time.

Bowls is an absorbing game – easy to learn, but difficult to master! For further information, contact the Club Secretary. Touring teams wishing to arrange a match at Abbrook Park should contact the Fixture Secretary.

                        W.B.B. BOWLING CLUB   

      How it all began By Fred Cox and Gordon Clark.                                                                                                     

Back in 1981, Fred Cox, a driver with Watts Blake &  Bearne was invited by Peter Mole a Teignmouth Docks worker, to bring a team of drivers to play bowls at Teignmouth’s Bitton Park Bowls Club for a friendly match. Much to his surprise, Fred managed to get 12 players from the drivers and other staff to form a team of 4 triples which was duly played on a Sunday morning at Bitton Park. From then on THE BUG HAD BITTEN. It was clear that everyone enjoyed themselves and a notice was put up in the works canteen for anyone interested in forming a bowls club to put their names on the list. Some 25 people attended an inaugural meeting and a steering committee was formed with (The late) Daphne Partridge (with her shorthand and typing skills) as secretary, Ron Sanders as Club Captain and Roger Austin as Chairmen. This was sanctioned by the main social Club committee and thus Watts Blake & Bearne’s Bowling Club idea was formed.

 Various meetings were called and the decision was made to approach the WBB Management requesting a piece of land suitable for building a bowls green. Fred was elected the representative to approach Mr John Pike (son of Mr Claude Pike – Managing Director of WBB) with the proposition and after some deliberation a plot was offered. The Works Manager, Mr Eric Ash was brought onboard and his approval was given to use machinery and lorries on the understanding that a comprehensive plan was drawn up. In order to proceed, the Playing Fields Association was approached and they were very helpful providing useful information and a drawing of a bowling green together with relevant measurements. Armed with this information the prospective bowlers set about building the green. 

The company (WBB) were very generous providing the workers with all the materials and the use of the machinery. The Quarry Manager supplied all the diggers and dumpers together with the drivers and so the job was on it’s way. Prior to this, the surveyor had been in and measured up the site, with a clear area to work on the next task was to have the ditches excavated on all four sides plus a trench for the 10” pipe for drainage. At this point, most of the Bowls Club Members were lorry drivers and these proved a valuable asset as they spent many hours driving to a China Clay site at Cornwood transporting the various sizes of stone and then the final layer of sand to the site. All the materials were dumped in heaps alongside the site after being issued with weigh in tickets from the weighbridge in order to make the journeys legal. Once again, the company came up trumps and lent a Volvo loader with a bucket in order to carry material from the heaps to the green.  During this time, 1982, the weather was very warm and dry which allowed the work to proceed at a steady pace with the volunteers working very hard to get the final surface ready to be inspected by Mr Woodward of Kerswell Gardens who was qualified to ascertain if the ground was perfectly even. Next came the grass and once again the company were on board and the grass was acquired from a Somerset company who supplied it in rolls 11ft long by 15” wide. 

Meanwhile, there were other tasks to do. Concrete paths and block work around the circumference of the green and the welders erected steel railings to create safe access to the container type clubhouse. It was also necessary to erect a fence around the site together with a chain link fencing in order to keep out rabbits who may take a fancy to the newly laid turf. With all this in place and to finish the job, several hundred fir trees were planted around the periphery of the site, these were paid for by the members contributing a couple of pounds each. 

The job was almost complete and now the task of watering the whole site had to be implemented as a matter of urgency. The weather was very hot and dry so the installation of water pipes and a pump was a matter of priority. Once again the company came to the rescue and hired a mobile pump and lowered it down a small lane where there was a stream sufficient for the job temporarily. Pretty soon the grass was growing fast and the Club had to purchase a grass cutting machine. The person who had promised to be green keeper backed out and so the job was taken on by Fred Cox and Gordon Clark who together did  the work for twelve years until Fred suffered a heart attack and was unable to continue. Gordon was then joined by Bob Gilpin, the Green Management was working well everything being done on a purely voluntary basis.  And so Watts Blake and Bearne’s Bowling Club was born. In 2000 WBB were taken over by Sibelco . In 2005 the name of the club was changed  to Abbrook Park Bowling Club. The president of Abbrook Park today is Mr John Pike the original representative of WBB.

This article is dedicated to Mr Fred Cox who sadly passed away whilst it was being collated by him.       

Contact Us

If you are interested in joining us, or if you have any further questions then feel free to send an email. For a more detailed list of contacts, for example Club secretary, then please go to the Contacts section for a full list of contacts.

Our location 

Abbrook Farm

Sandygate

Kingsteignton

TQ12 3PS