TROWBRIDGE veteran Dave Richards is savouring a season to remember as he leads Bowls Wiltshire through their centenary year.

The 67-year-old is the seventh member from the Trowbridge Westbourne club to hold the position of president in the county association, his one-year term coinciding with the county association celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Wiltshire are halfway through a set of four centenary games, having already beaten the Barbarians Bowls Association 141-112 last month at Wootton Bassett as well as losing 135-109 to the Friends of English Bowling at North Wilts.

Richards is able to count on the support of long-time compatriot Adie Lloyd, the first male England Bowls president from Wiltshire in over 50 years, and is hoping to oversee a successful conclusion to the county’s anniversary year.

“It’s a very exciting year and I’m very lucky to be president at the moment,” said Richards.

“I’ve been playing since 1979 and I’ve always played at Trowbridge Westbourne, apart from a few years when I moved to Trowbridge Town.

“I’ve known Adie Lloyd, who’s the English president, for 20 years through playing in the county and it’s great to have his help – he came with the Friends of English team that we played a few weeks ago.

“We’ve had some good bowlers come out of Wiltshire. There are some young players coming through, like my niece’s son and daughter (Tom, 19, and Georgina, 14).

“We just need to get rid of that old man stigma.

“Hopefully the rest of the year will go well and we can look forward to the future.”

Representatives from various clubs in Wiltshire first met at the New Inn in Trowbridge on Wednesday April 1, 1914 to discuss the formation of the county association, which came to fruition on May 6.

In January 2009, the two gender-based associations, the Wiltshire Bowls Association and Wiltshire County Women’s Bowls Association, came together to form ‘the Moonrakers’ in its current form.

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