First Annual General Meeting

The first A.G.M. was held on the 28th of May 1896. In the intervening months since the inaugural meeting to set up the Association, the ranks of affiliated clubs had swollen to seventeen. These being: -

Bounds Green; Bromley; Brownswood; Lewisham; West London; Reading; Southampton; Mansfield; Ilford; Green Man (Upton Park); Southampton County; Old Charlton; Woodfield; Plashet; Lambeth Carlton; Temple and one other.

It is claimed that Temple had been one of the clubs invited to the inaugural meeting, with delegates having set out in a Pony and Trap to attend. Unfortunately somewhere on route, one of the wheels had come off of the cart, halting further progress. A messenger was dispatched post haste on foot, to give their apologies and promise support for the infant Association. He arrived in time to see the meeting break up and too late for the apologies to be recorded. Such keenness and enterprise must surely call for the award of an Honorary Founder Membership!

The Constitution, having been fully discussed, it was unanimously accepted, with the following individuals being elected as a Management Committee: -

President:	Mr. E.C. Price [Brownswood B.C.]
Vice President:	Mr. Scuddaby [Reading B.C.]
Treasurer:	Mr. Singer Stokes [Bounds Green B.C.]
Secretary:	Mr. Archie Gibson [Bromley B.C.]
Committee:	Mr. J. Hay [Temple B.C.]
	Mr. E. Meyrick [North London B.C.]
	Mr. Colin Cambell [Bromley B.C.]
	Mr. Rowbotham [Southampton B.C.]
	Mr. Maskell [Mansfield B.C.]
	Mr. Penmon [Woodfield B.C.]

Immediate Priority had to be given to sorting out the confusion of rules and methods of play that then existed into a common Code of Law which could be built on and give stability to the came throughout Southern England. Paving the way to establishing flat green bowling as a truly National Sport!

What revolutionary ideas those men had, what vision of the future, especially as they put them into motion as early as 1895; the year Macron first used radio waves for communication and Röntgen discovered X Rays. Who knows, perhaps theirs were the ideas and example that W.G. Grace used eight years later, when becoming involved in setting up the E.B.A.

By the end of that year a set of Rules of Play and a Code of Conduct was laid out, which was generally acceptable to the membership of all affiliated clubs.

Some of the guidelines that were draw up are still in use to this very day; such as: -

Rink: A side of four players, whose order shall not be changed after the first end has been played.

Cloth: For standing on during the delivery of the wood, shall now be known as a Mat.

There were many more rules that are still in our current rule book, with a multitude that have been changed over the year. For instance; Touchers were eliminated and replaced with, "When the Jack runs into the ditch. It shall be considered a lost end." (How do you lose an end?)

Shortly afterwards, probably worrying about all the ends that had disappeared, the rule was amended to say that the end should be replayed in the eventuality of the Jack being knocked into the ditch. (That amendment could have cost chalk manufacturers a fortune!)

At the second A.G.M in 1897, the frame work of rules having been agreed, authority was given to print 500 copies of a Handbook, at a cost of £9:11/6, which was to include, The Constitution and Rules and Laws of the Game for the Association.

The handbook was published in 1899. It was the very first version of an annual Handbook and it has been in production ever since.