Sport England Grant

Grant to help Daventry Town Bowls Club during current COVID-19 pandemic 

Daventry Town Bowls Club based in Northamptonshire has been awarded £2,000 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund towards overheads and costs during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses as of March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty. In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195m package to help the sport and physical activity sector through covid-19. Within the package is a £20m Community Emergency Fund, of National Lottery money to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus. The grant will allow Daventry Town Bowls Club to cover some of the ongoing costs and maintenance over the coming months.

Duggie Mitchell, Secretary of Daventry Town Bowls Club, commented:

On notification from Bowls England, Bowls Development Alliance and Bowls Northamptonshire an online application was submitted on 8th April. Given the very high volume of applications from across all sports/communities and knowing staff were working from home it was truly remarkable to receive confirmation of our award from Sport England on Tuesday 28th April. This grant is much appreciated and will help towards our loss of income, paying ongoing costs and hopefully ensuring members have a club to return to whenever it is safe and practical to do so.

Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s Chief Executive, said:

“As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participation, we want the vital grassroots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players is part of a multimillion pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and wellbeing.

“We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Daventry Town Bowls Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.”

 

Daventry Town Bowls Club – News Update

We have been working with George Babalev, Club Development Manager at Bowls Development Alliance who has overseen and guided us through their program of procedures and criteria necessary in meeting pre-determined standards.

In addition to updating and ensuring our club administration. policies and bowling facilities are in line with that required we have been working towards meeting the Nationally recognised standards.

Having worked hard in successfully developing and meeting these standards we are pleased to announce we have been awarded the Bowls Disability Mark. The Bowls Disability Mark has been developed to recognise and reward affiliated bowls clubs who are fully inclusive and welcoming to those people who wish to bowl who have a form of disability. It greatly helps clubs follow the right steps towards becoming a fully inclusive club.

In confirming the award by email George added : “On behalf of the Disability Bowls Steering Group, I am delighted to announce that Daventry Town Bowls Club have been awarded the Bowls Disability Mark. I would like to congratulate the club committee and Duggie Mitchell in particular for their outstanding commitment to disability bowls and continuous efforts to develop the club into a truly inclusive hub for the local community.”

Owing to the present restrictions it is not possible to arrange a formal presentation but this will be arranged at some point in the future. In the mean time we thank George for the help

and tremendous contribution made in guiding us through the numerous processes leading to this award.