The Central Bowling Club in Bournemouth was locally known as Spion Kop, which was the original name, likely due to its elevated location. This nickname was a common way to describe locations or structures with a prominent or elevated vantage point, a term adopted widely in the UK for sports and recreation venues. 

The Mayor, Alderman H G Harris, formally opened two new greens at Spion Kop on Tuesday 16th June 1936 by casting the first jack in a match between the Bournemouth club and the Town Council. The Corporation had spent £2,400 to construct the two greens. The main reason for the greens was to counter criticism that the Bournemouth greens were too widely spread. Visiting competitors in the Tournament had drawn unfavourable comparisons with the rivals Hastings event which was played on six greens all together in the town centre. The new green would, the Mayor hoped, centralise Tournament games to bring back many old players and attract new ones.

The earliest photo of the greens appear in the 1948 map, which also includes the other two greens used by Bournemouth BC at Meyrick Park.

The initial decades saw Spion Kop used sparingly, supporting tournament play, and by the Bournemouth Ladies Club.

The next known history of Spion Kop came in the 1970s, when local businesses, such as Southernprint, started using the greens. Southernprint was a large publisher in Poole and Bournemouth, its titles including the Herald series of weekly newspapers. The bowls section was, as its name suggests, a part of the company’s sports club. Membership was small but enthusiastic.

Richard Haynes, a member of the Abbey Life bowls section, states they played their knockout games at Knyveton Gardens BC, but played in a Thursday Evening Triples League at Central BC. The league was called SEA League, made up of the three companies that participated - Southernprint, Echo and Abbey Life.

The SEA League continued into the early 1990s, but the Southernprint link was severed in 1984, with the introduction of many non-company members, the club grew in size and was renamed Central BC. Richard Haines was one of those “spotted” by Central club member Ted Owen, who encouraged him to join Central BC. In 1991, Richard won the Men’s Singles Club Competition.

Richard recalls finding it strange that he had a club tie with a seagull on it, which is quite fitting as the club is by the sea, but the club lapel badge at the time had a magpie! A few years later when new ties were ordered with a magpie, Richard was told the original ties were wrong. A magpie had always been the club’s mascot due to magpies always being around the green.

The greens used at Central BC were often referred to as the C & D greens, with the A & B greens being the two main greens used at Bournemouth Bowls Club. Central only really used the C green, located nearest the car park entrance. The D green at the far end was built into the bank side of the golf course and was partly surrounded by rhododendrons which tended to make the green damper and slower. Alan Miller, who captained the side in the early 1990s described the green as “heavy”.

The club had a reasonably sized wooden hut as the clubhouse. It was not big enough to all have tea within, which was always served outside, but people could stand shoulder to shoulder in the clubhouse to protect themselves from the rain.

Trevor Smyth was a member of Central BC from 1983 to 1993. Looking back fondly of his time at Central BC, Trevor shared that Central Bowling Club first entered B&DBA League in 1984, becoming the fifth club to win the lowest section at that time, Section 6. The success of the club was emphatic, winning every game that season! Not surprisingly, Central BC went on to win Section 5, then Section 4, followed by Section 3, in the next three seasons, where they finally found their level briefly in Section 2, before being relegated back into Section 3, and being crowned champions again in 1991. The years that followed saw two further relegations, with Central’s last success coming in 1995 when they won Section 4. 

In August 1988, whilst playing Redhill BC in a B&D League home match, Trevor Smyth was in the rink when a hot shot was recorded. Along with Trevor, the rink consisted of Alan Miller, Russell Pegg and the Club President from club’s inception, Noel Hanney, who passed away in 1992, aged 78.

Trevor shared some of the individual achievements of club members:

1986 - Dick Gale and Trevor Smyth played and were well beaten by Tony Alcock and 27-stone Freddie Taylor of Taylor Bowls in the Bournemouth Open Pairs.

1988 - Bournemouth Open Tournament - 19-year old Alan Miller reached the Singles Final - a superb achievement!

1991 - B&D Champion of Champions – Trevor Smyth beating Chris Martin of Boscombe Cliff in the final at Meyrick Park. Big advantage for Trevor who practised on the same rink 4 days earlier, despite just that day being given a shock redundancy by Abbey Life, but that was not going to interfere with his planned roll-up!

Trevor Smyth’s activity at Central BC was cut short by a bad leg break in February 1992. Trevor remembers: “I played in a friendly game on two crutches, non-weight bearing on one leg!“

Gary Rees, along with his dad, used to play for Central between 1986-1992. Gary remembers Ted Owen, along with Eric Chalk were responsible for founding Central BC. Trevor Smyth described Ted Owen as someone who was a vital member of the club, a much able and energetic secretary, and a dedicated backhand lead. Ted was a fully qualified umpire, and was entitled to wear the official red blazer. In the late 1990s he achieved one of his main ambitions, to mark the Bournemouth Tournament Men’s Single Final. 

Despite being such a small club, Central BC had enough bowlers for friendlies, mainly because everyone played, including the players wives, Trevor Smyth recollects:

“Each year we had reciprocal games with Witney Mills near Oxford - a friendly but unruly mob with a business association with Southern Print. I also remember a club coach trip to pretty Chew Stoke near Bath. In those days the cost of coach travel was not as prohibitive as now, we managed to field 6 rinks mixed.”

After the successes of the 1980s and early 1990s, the club continued to struggle for membership. The 1990s sadly saw the loss of a few pivotal club members who passed on too early,  notably jolly Eric Chalk in 1995 (57), president Noel Hanney in 1992 (78), also skip John Miller and Ted Owen (years unknown). Central BC had around 30 members at this time, and went down to just 24 members, which made fielding a team in the B&D Saturday Premier League even more remarkable when 16 players were fielded each week. Those members that missed out on selection were always disappointed, which proved there was healthy competition within the club.

In 1993 the clubhouse “mysteriously” burnt down by arsonists in the early hours of 18th May. It was believed by many of its members that the greens were on life support, as the council were desperate to close the greens down. An unpopular and unsightly portacabin was brought in to replace the clubhouse, which was far from ideal and a very tight fit when trying to house club members and the opposition, which could be up to 64 people.

According to Bournemouth bowls history records, Bournemouth Council closed the two Spion Kop greens at the end of the 1997 season as part of wider green closures in the town. Members continued playing bowls by moving to other local clubs. Richard Haines went to Bournemouth Electric, whilst others went to Wessex, Parkstone, Poole and Pelhams. Surprisingly, it is thought no members ended up at nearby Bournemouth BC, but there was no rivalry between the two clubs, rather they were just seen as two separate clubs.

This history article has largely been made possible with the support of former members Trevor Smyth and Richard Haines, who have shared their memories and photographs. Thank you also to Alan Miller and Gary Rees who contributed, and to those who helped provide information on who to contact. This article has taken two years to create and publish, and keeps the memory of Spion Kop and Central BC alive for many decades to come.