The flood of December 2009 or
Bucket look what happened to our clubhouse or
The Purley Bury Tsunami.

During the week of the 30th December 2009 the club experience a large outflow of water from the drain on the club site behind the area of the disabled toilet. Water was flooding out from under the drain hole cover and around the club house. The main road was covered with water and we seemed to be getting more than our fair share. As the new extension wasn’t designed with floating and animals in mind John called Thames water to come and relieve the problem with the water.
It appears that the personnel who came believed that it was a small blockage and after some “rooding” the drain flowed away and the water lowered. John had a discussion with the personnel now on site but they seemed to think that the problem was solved (ask John for further details he swears better than me, well most times).
The problem however was not solved and come a further cloudburst and downfall on Wednesday the water again failed to dissipate and overflowed the drain behind the club house again.
Fortunately this happened in the early afternoon when there was a group of short mat bowlers in the club playing (a group who will be called from here on the Canutes. The inflow of water now progressing along into the main body of the club from the corridor to the new extension was seen and they immediately jumped in to action. The Canutes rolled up the mats and using brooms, mops, brushes, buckets , bowls etc. were employed in stemming the tide. The Herculean efforts of the Canutes forced the water back towards whence it had come and stopped it from reaching the kitchen. Hip, hip hooray!!
John “Noah” Tucker called Thames again and they arrived with some CCTV things and announced that the bucket had dropped down and blocked the drain.
Bucket? Bucket? Yes I have spelt in correctly! It appears that there was an arrangement put in place when the drains were first laid that employes a bucket on chains that catches large solid things and was then emptied regularly (in those bygone days). This no longer appears to happen and the chains holding the bucket finally failed and it then went and blocked the flow of water through the drain. The bucket was removed by a new set of Thames Water personnel and the water now flows. On Thursday there was a drain cleaning van down outside the club and the drain was also cleared of various amounts of fat build up.
The area outside the club has been marked up with warning notices which announce some work that will take place between the 11th and the 14th of December. Don’t watch this space watch the space in the road!!

Stop Press. If I can get some of the photos taken I’ll put some here.
 

HISTORY OF PURLEY BURY BOWLING CLUB

Purley Bury Bowling Club was founded in 1946 just after the Second World War. Purley Bury Tennis Club was founded in 1910 and where the bowling green is now there were grass tennis courts. During the war the area had been used by the military and was left in a bad state. It was decided to put in five hard tennis courts and put in a bowling green. The green opened for play in 1949.

Like most bowling clubs at the time it was a men only club. Gradually a fixture list of matches, principally against local clubs, was established. In 1954 thanks to a member who moved to Eastbourne, a fixture was set up with Eastbourne Bowling Club. This fixture provided the club with an annual day’s outing to Eastbourne. Unlike most of the other fixtures this was played by six rinks. Purley Bury was only a small club and had difficulty raising six rinks from its own members and usually had guest players from other clubs in the area.

When the club was founded it affiliated to the English Bowling Association and the Surrey County Bowling Association. In 1971 following the inclusion of Purley and Coulsdon in the London Borough of Croydon, the club joined the Borough of Croydon Association. At about the same time the club was concerned about falling membership and in common with other bowling clubs decided to admit ladies. Prior to this the wives of the members had played croquet on the area between the tennis courts and the bowling green. After ladies had been admitted to the bowling club the playing of croquet ceased.

Up to this time the club had taken little interest in the competitions organised by the County and Borough Associations. In 1972 John and Olga Lindsay-Clark joined the club. John was a very competitive individual and wanted to play in these outside competitions. He became Match Secretary and in 1977 became the first Purley Bury member to win a Borough of Croydon Association competition, winning the Secretaries Singles. Two years later, he was followed by John Richardson who won the Unbadged Singles. This encouraged other members to enter both the Borough and County competitions.

Since the clubs foundation, it had shared a pavilion and a bar with the tennis club. This was always unsatisfactory as all the facilities were adjacent to the tennis courts and at a distance from the bowling green. In 1989 the club had its first tour in Bournemouth. On the coach journey back from Bournemouth some members started discussing the possibility of having our own pavilion beside the bowling green. A subcommittee was set up to investigate the possibilities, and after overcoming many difficulties and obstacles a new clubhouse was erected beside the bowling green and was formally opened by the then mayor of Croydon at the start of the 1993 season. Since that time the club has gone from strength to strength and from being a small club struggling to survive in the early seventies is now one of the leading clubs in the area.