7-25-23 - ITEM 4.41924-2024
Celebrating 100 incredibowl years!
Original clubhouse and rinks located on the bluff in downtown
Clearwater where the new city hall was built in 1962.
Construction of the new clubhouse and rinks was completed in 1964 at the club's current location on Calumet Street.
Some Historical Highlights
1924 The club was founded and invited to be one of the 20 clubs in the American Lawn Bowling Association (ALBA)
1953 The American Lawn Bowling Association Southeast Division annual tournament was held in Clearwater
1965 The American Lawn Bowling Association National Open Tournament was held at the new club facility
1966 Clearwater was represented for the first time on the National Council of the American Lawn Bowling Association
Board of Directors when Edward Hayden became the 2nd Vice President of ALBA
1968 Clearwater radio station WTAN started broadcasting announcements to let bowlers know whether or not bowling
was canceled due to rainy weather or wet rinks
1980 The Fall issue of ALBA's Bowls magazine mentions two of our Club members who invented a bowl retriever
1980s Clearwater was the only club who had four presidents of the ALBA as club members
1982 American Lawn Bowls Association 61St Annual National Open Tournament at Sparkling Clearwater Florida was held
1985 Dorothy Weeks from Clearwater was President of the Women's World Bowls Association
1985 Clearwater hosted the United States Singles and Pairs Championships
The Clearwater Lawn Bowling Club has 7 members in the Bowls USA Hall of Fame
This is the most of any club in the country
Clearwater Lawn Bowling Club 1040 Calumet St Clearwater 33755 727-641-9144
clearwaterlawnbowlingclub@yahoo.com www.clearwaterlawnbowlingclub.org
1924-2024
Celebrating 100 incredibowf years!
Some of our recent and upcoming marketing plans include:
1. Starting evening bowling to be more accessible to working people
2. Sunday afternoon bowling has been added
3. Junior size lawn bowls have been purchased to accommodate kids and families
4. Advertising in the October 2023 "Welcome Back" issue of Tampa Bay Newspapers Pinellas County Beacon
5. Continuing to exhibit at the Safety Harbor Health and Wealth Expo; the Dunedin Senior Awareness Fair; and
the Safety Harbor Senior Expo
6. Participating in future Fun Fest events in Largo and Dunedin
7. Being involved with the Palm Harbor Community Health Fair in 2023
8. Doing a marketing campaign this year in a development of 500 homes which will be a series of five ads, a
newsletter article, and bowling demonstrations at the community picnic in the fall
9. Our 100th Anniversary Centennial Celebrations for 2024 are still in the planning stages
We are also hosting five regional tournaments
and the inaugural Pinellas County Invitational tournament
Our 2023-24 Centennial Series tournament schedule:
Saturday, December 9, 2023
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Date to be determined
100th Anniversary Centennial Season Opener
Clearwater Open Tournament
Super Bowls Tournament
100th Anniversary Centennial Tournament
Ken Roberts Memorial Tournament
15t Annual Pinellas County Invitational
The history of a local recreation club
that was founded in 1924
• Membership was in the hundreds (and even into the thousands) during the 1930s and through the 60s
and 70s
• 1972—The city proposed moving the club and paving the area for a new parking lot
• Early 2000s—membership was down to 35 members, most of them over 75 years old
• 2005 --free Friday nights, open to the public, were initiated by a partnership of the city, the club, and a
group of local artists
• 2017—the club had approximately 1000 members
• Today—the club has over 2600 members
The above is the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club.
Lawn bowling is a popular pastime for people of all ages: Mt. Dora, a town in central Florida
with a population of 20,000, has a lawn bowling club with over 200 members.
With the city of Clearwater's help, a recreation resurgence could happen here.
People from all over Pinellas County would be drawn to Clearwater's
restaurants and other establishments on their way to and from
a fun evening of lawn bowling and shuffleboard on Calumet St.
Why not Clearwater? Why not now? Let's make this happen.
Sources: https://stpeteshuffle.corn?
haps /wv, mem tdor` la dnhowifi co
ttps://www.therrnger.corp 20170/5/ 6036620 r sr.... -of-s1,ff c s�{, r � E�c 1 � c at5770e7 1,
Where to add activities without interfering with existing lawn bowling or shuffleboard
West side measurement
(yellow lines) is approximately:
130 feet wide
500 feet long
East side measurement
(yellow lines) is approximately:
One of these or a
combination on this
very shady side:
Dog park
Playground
Remove grass and
put in sand
volleyball courts
Fitness trail with
exercise stations
Paddleboard, kayak,
and canoe launch
here
130 feet wide
300 feet long
Pickleball court,,
here
Each court is 44 x
20 feet
Parking- in the
existing lot
A road with a
turnaround area
at the end would
allow for dropping
people off and
maintenance
vehicles (the
green arrow)