Angel Indoor Bowls Club

Hello and welcome to the official SNAP Sponsorship profile of Angel Indoor Bowls Club! Based in the centre of Tonbridge we provide one of the finest bowls facilities within Kent. The club are delighted to announce that we have now partnered with SNAP to showcase our sponsorship portfolio, engage with local businesses and enhance our sport for the benefit of our members and wider community.

Why Sponsor Us?

Here are three reasons why your business should sponsor Angel Indoor Bowls Club!

Increase Brand Consideration 

Angel Indoor Bowls Club compete in a wide range of competitions and tournaments across Kent and further afield. Sponsorship of our club would provide your business with increased brand consideration, allowing your organisation to market your services to our players, social members, opposition clubs and supporters throughout the year.

Business Network Opportunity

Angel Indoor Bowls Club have a growing membership base of over 550 individuals. Sponsorship of our club would enable your business the chance to connect with this network of players and social members, permitting your organisation to promote your products to these potential clients.

Support Community Development 

Angel Indoor Bowls Club wish to grow our sport and our other club activities for the benefit of the community. Sponsorship of our club will ensure that your business is at the forefront of our advancement, bringing your brand into the centre of our operations which will significantly improve our member experience. 

Please notify the club if there are any opportunities which are not currently present on our SNAP profile. To register your interest in any of our sponsorship packages please contact our page or an official club representative directly. 

The Club Today

Angel Indoor Bowls Club is one of Kent’s premier Bowls clubs. We are proudly associated with official organisations such as the England Indoor Bowling Association and the Kent Indoor Bowling Association. We have recently associated the club with the Tonbridge Community Forum, a group which seeks to promote projects that support the development of our local area.

Our members cover a wide spectrum – from those who enjoy the sport as a chance to stay fit after retiring and enjoy the benefits of meeting friends regularly, our junior section that has had players who have progressed to England Under 18 teams, our assisted section for those players who need a bit of help due to disability, and to the competitive players who compete at County and National level, regularly reaching the finals in Nottingham. Of course, we also have a large number of social members too who do not participate, but attend to join in the social side and use the bar and restaurant facilities. There really is something for everyone.

We pride ourselves in being a forward thinking club, and regularly have stalls at local fetes, farmers markets and street festivals. We do this to raise our profile in the town and to challenge the image that bowls has of being just for retired people. We have adopted a colourful new kit just before lockdown in our club colours of maroon and gold whilst many other clubs still play in the traditional white and grey.

During lockdown we created a welcome back video, based on the Governing Body guidelines. This was posted to YouTube and shared by the Governing Body on their social media channels as well as our own. It’s this sort of initiative that sets us apart from other bowls clubs.

Our club acts as host to many local groups as a venue for their own meetings, as we see this as a way of giving back to the community – groups include the NARPO (National Association of Retired Police Officers), a local dog group, a dementia club where people come along and are treated to old time music, tea and cake, to aid their memories, a local knitting group and even the local Lions Club – the first in the country.

Back on the green we host an excellent competitive level. We are proud to have the reigning Mens County Singles Champion and Mens and Ladies Singles Champions who won the awards two years ago. In addition to this we also have the Mens Winner who was one of several players who travel to play with us in the summer when their own clubs do not have fixtures. Four of our players played in three different National Finals competitions last season. We have had multiple finalists in the County Championships for the past few years also.

Aspirations

Angel Indoor Bowls Club’s aspirations for the future have been outlined in three key areas:

To grow the game of Bowls 

Bowls is a truly fantastic sport which grows in popularity each year. As a club we have taken vast strides into expanding the image of our sport and host regular community engagement projects which connect us to non-playing members who may wish to join in either a playing or social aspect.

To increase membership 

Our club has always retained a great membership number each year due to our state of the art facilities and welcoming environment. However, we also want to ensure that our sport is as accessible and inclusive as possible, which in turn will increase our membership base and create further playing opportunities.

To secure a sustainable future 

Like all grassroots sports clubs the Covid-19 pandemic allowed us to see how easily it was for our operations to become disrupted. Through sponsorship we want to maximise revenue so that we can build towards a more sustainable future, giving individuals from our local community a place to enjoy social relationships as well as the health and wellbeing benefits that sport can facilitate.

History

In November 1979 four local bowlers, John Hewlett, Jack Skinner, Stan Rawlings and Peter Burtenshaw visited a newly opened purpose built facility in Eastbourne. Impressed by what they had observed plans were devised to introduce the sport of indoor bowls to Tonbridge. Come the autumn of 1980 Tonbridge and Malling District Council made available the present site lease and a promise of financial assistance.  A quote to build the venue finally emerged at £400,000 and so the fundraising task began. Founding members will recall the euphoria surrounding the centre when it was first opened with the centre as the only purposed built stadium in the West Kent region.

Those early days the Angel was the place to be, with membership close on 1,000. This was a time when there was not so much choice in entertainment – no internet, only a few TV channels, and people were more active than nowadays. As time has gone on membership has slowly declined, but over the last couple of years we have reversed that trend, with over 200 new members, most new to the sport but enjoying what the game has to offer. However, we still retain some of those first members to this day – showing loyalty to the club that they helped to build and develop. 

In the early years players from the Angel won the Men’s National Singles Final two years in a row, along with the National Triples and British Isles Triples. In more recent years we have added the National and British Isles Pairs titles, and numerous County and Home Counties titles. We’ve also had players representing the National team at every age group from Under 18, Under 25, through to full Internationals and Over 50's as well.