20/12/2025
Wow, what a year 2025 has been! It was about this time last Christmas that three bowlers came together to discuss setting up a new club. After an off the cuff comment by someone else, the three got together and just before Christmas Day 2024, started to put the plan in motion. By the 1st January 2025, they had managed to organise the option of buying the former Lanjeth mats and equipment, sort the home venue and practice sessions, and start to spread the word about the new club named Granite Valley Bowls. The name came simply because Luxulyan Village Hall would be our venue, with Luxulyan being a huge producer of natural granite and had the beautiful valley as one of the attractions of our village. The club was originally formed by these three and joined by just over ten other players who enjoyed a social bowl. There was never a thought that our club would enter the county or it's league, as we were only thinking about enjoying our great sport together. By the end of January, we had managed to buy our equipment, some items needed replacing, but until we could do this, it was good enough to play with. Our club officially opened on the 10th February 2025, with our first ever practice. Over the next couple of months we formed a committee and enjoyed many practice sessions between us, including having a couple of new members join too. The next few month's saw us we invite other local teams to enjoy a friendly match with us, with us having the pleasure of enjoying the same at their venues too. A massive thank you to Goonbarrow SMBC, St Newlyn East SMBC and Withiel SMBC for sharing this with us. We also visited the lovely people who bowl casually at Lanivet Hall. It really inspired all of our members, especially the ones who had only started bowling as a hobby. We all decided that we would like to participate in the Winter League and our committee assembled club colours and stickers, which were later purchased. We started our Winter League campaign with a home match, which unfortunately we lost to a very good St Agnes side, but to our defence, due to illness and holidays already booked, we could only field a seven person team. Did it stop or undo our willingness to compete, no it didn't. We are now halfway through our debut season in the Winter League and we sit joint third on points with our first opponents, who we play again at the start of January coming. We have enjoyed tight games, great bowling, and many friendly matches so far. At the start of December we supported our local village church by entering a Granite Valley Bowls club Christmas Tree in their Festival of Christmas Tree's event. The event raised over £600 towards the church, meaning repairs urgently needed can at least be attended to. The event also collected items for our local food bank, a very worth while cause at this time of the year. Well done all involved with a great weekend. We also had our very first Christmas Dinner on the 9th of this month. A fabulous meal by the staff at Porthpean Golf Club, who attended to all of our needs, including having the whole place to ourselves. A massive thank you to them by our whole club who turned up to the meal with their families. Our last practice session will be this Monday (22nd) before we close for Christmas, so it would be great to have a full turnout of members. And so to the future...
Our first practice session in 2026 will be Monday 5th January, usual time, 2-4pm. There will not be one on Wednesday 7th as we are away for the first match back in the Winter League, so good luck to the team for this. Monday 12th we also have a league match at home, but the spare mat will be out for those who are not in the team to practice on.
We start our first ever Club Singles Championship in the new year too. We also have the second half of the Winter League to compete in, and are looking to give it a huge push to see just how well we can do. February will see a whole year that the club will have been together, and our AGM will be announced very soon. I'm sure a few more friendlies will also follow during the summer of 2026 too. Who knows, maybe even a new local competition on the horizon, maybe! The club will go from strength to strength, but with the thought that although we are enjoying the competition of league bowling, the emphasis will always be to enjoy bowls before anything else. We have an amazing group of members here, and that will never change. I suppose the morale of our club story is if you're not happy where you are, change it as you can do something good and special.
Now onto the seasons greetings part...
Granit Valley Bowls would like to firstly wish all the staff at Porthpean Golf Club, the members of Goonbarrow SMBC, St Newlyn East SMBC, Withiel SMBC, Lostwithiel SMBC, St Agnes Agnes SMBC, Luxulyan SMBC, Lanivet Bowls, CCSMBA members and all other non county clubs a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Please stay safe and well, and enjoy the festive season. A huge Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of our members and their families. Let's hope 2026 will be lucky for as many of us as possible.
