CHIPPENHAM bowls stalwart Adie Lloyd admits that he never anticipated that he’d make it to the head of the national association.

The 72-year-old, a veteran member of the North Wilts club, is the Bowls England president – the first male from Wiltshire to hold that position for over 50 years.

Lloyd’s duties this year include arranging celebratory matches to make club, county and association anniversaries and the Wiltshire bowler is proud to be involved in shaping the future of his sport.

“If you’d told me 30 years ago that I’d end being president of Bowls England, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Lloyd, who was initially elected junior vice-president in 2012 before spending last year as senior vice-president.

“I’ve been playing bowls for a long time and now I’m doing a lot of things that I’m not used to.

“I’m away all the time. I travelled to one club to help open a new facility and there was another club where I had to hand out an award posthumously, which was quite a strange thing to do.

“But I’m really proud to be doing what I’m doing, especially because there hasn’t been a male president from Wiltshire since the 1950s.

“At the start of the year, the association we moved to a new home in Leamington, so there are a few changes going on.

“We want to get more people involved in the sport. It’s a great sport to play and there are young and old players, but you usually only hear about the older ones.

“I want to try and help with that as much as I can.”

MORE SPORTS NEWS, PICTURES AND REPORTS IN THIS THURSDAY’S GAZETTE AND HERALD. FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @gazsport