Arclight Bowls Club
The Alf Baker Golden Drive
Friday 9 May 2025
It was a lovely sunny afternoon on Friday 9 May 2025, when Arclight Bowls Club held their very first competition of The Alf Baker's Golden Drive. This new competition and trophy has been established to celebrate the 50 continuous years that Alf Baker has been a full time and extremely loyal member of our club.
Before our match, to mark the occasion, our President Neil Crockford, presented Alf with a lovely engraved glass tankard. This was met with a great big cheer and lots of clapping from our Club members.
Following this presentation,our Competitions' Secretary, Mick Stone, explained the rules of the drive. Each member playing 3 games of bowls. The winner was the one who had scored the largest number of shots during the afternoon.
The drive finished with Alf Baker presenting the brand new trophy to the winner, Dave Marshall.
The final shot scores for the top 3 were:
First place Dave Marshall 29-19
Second place Joy Wickham 27-12
3rd place Jane Bouch 27-14
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A little potted history of Alf's 50 Golden Years
In his 50 years as a member of Arclight, Alf has seen Arclight go through many changes. When he joined, it was a small club, a section of the Sports and Social Club of E.N. Mason & Sons Ltd at their Arclight works in Cowdray Avenue and playing its games in Castle Park.
In 1979 the club moved to Eudo Road to share the green with Colchester Ladies B.C. and as Club Secretary, Alf was one of those involved in having the football changing room from the Arclight sports ground opposite the Fire Station transported on a low loader to Eudo Road to become the Arclight clubhouse. In 1982 the club became independent of the Arclight works, but was allowed to retain the name and began to expand. Alf saw the club become more competitive, allow ladies to join as associate members initially and finally become a fully mixed club.
Alf was Club Champion in 1979 and again in 1999, 2010 and 2015 – a remarkable 36 years between his first title and his most recent one. He was Club Secretary from 1979-1982 and again in 2008.
He was Club Captain in 2009. He has been a loyal club member for all those 50 years, a good bowler and someone the Club has always been able to rely on.
Here’s to the next fifty!
Neil Crockford
