05 Oct Bob Swann – A Life Given to Bowling

It was with great sadness that we learned of the recent death of Bob Swann. For anyone who knew Huddersfield crown green bowling, Bob was a reassuringly familiar figure. Someone who just seemed to have been there forever, woven into the fabric of our sport.

Bob never thought of himself as a great bowler, just average, and was rather good at making light of his bowling record. But that modesty disguised just how much the game meant to him, and how much he gave to it.

His association with Cowcliffe stretched back to 1970 and, over the years, Bob became much more than simply a member of the club. He was one of those people who took responsibility without making a performance of it, and who could be relied upon when something needed doing.

That quality served him just as well beyond Cowcliffe. As Huddersfield League Competition Secretary during the late 1980s, he took on the formidable task of organising competitions at a time when there was no shortcut, no software and certainly no button marked ‘produce fixtures’. It was all done by hand, and Bob did it with the care and thoroughness that became his trademark.

He also served for many years on Veterans League and County committees, became a qualified referee and was a champion of the junior game.

But jobs and titles only tell part of the story. What people will remember is Bob himself — his quiet humour, his decency, his willingness to help and the sense that, if Bob was involved, things would probably be alright.

There is a tendency to judge bowlers by the simplest of measures: wins, trophies and what eventually appears in the record books. Bob, of course, would probably have been quite happy with that arrangement.

But it rather misses the point.

Bob leaves behind much more than a bowling record. He leaves clubs, leagues, a county and several generations of bowlers that are stronger because of him.

There was one thing you could say of Bob Swann with absolute certainty – there was nothing average about him.