A WIVELISCOMBE bowls club can look forward to a far easier effortless future, thanks to a grant of more than £6,000 from Sport England.

Kingsmead Short Mat Bowls Club, based at the New Hall at Wiveliscombe Primary School, has been awarded a grant of £6,266 to fund a machine to help with the rolling up and putting away of the mats used to play the sport.

The club has been in existence for nearly 25 years and the average age of its members is over 70 years old, meaning shifting the mats – which measure 42.5 feet by six feet – has become increasingly difficult.

But with the help of the grant, the club has been able to buy an Electrowind Trident Triple Short Mat Carpet Handling Unit.

Club chairman Richard Oliver said: “The game is played on mats about 42.5 feet long – we’re far too old to understand metric – and six feet wide.

“Basically they are big rolls of carpet that have to be rolled out to play on and rolled up when we are finished.

“We have three of them, they are very heavy and they have to be manually rolled up and then lifted onto a storage frame.

“The average age of the members, both male and female, is in excess of 70 years and thereby hangs a self-explanatory problem.

“The club therefore is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from Sport England to the value of £6,266.

“With this grant we have bought an Electrowind Trident Triple Short Mat Carpet Handling Unit and this wonderful machine does exactly what it says on the tin.

“It stores the carpets when not in use and at the push of two buttons it unrolls them for us to play on and at the end of the evening it rolls them up again onto the storage frame, thus no heavy lifting.

“We are very grateful for this very generous grant with which we also bought two new sets of bowls (woods).

“This means we can let newcomers use our woods until they are able to buy their own.”

Kingsmead Short Mat Bowls Club is always on the lookout for new members – the club meets on Wednesday evenings and the first three evenings are free.

If you decide to become a member it will cost you just £3 per night and 30p for tea and biscuits – contact Richard Oliver 01984- 624101.