30 Nov ASSOCIATION DONATES £550 TO THE KIRKWOOD

On Friday 24 November HVBA presented a wopping cheque to The Kirkwood for £550. This is the third year running and our donations are now over £1500 since running the inaugural John Hoyle Memorial Trophy in 2021.

John Hoyle was General Secretary for four years before being elected President at the 50th anniversary presentation in February 2020. Unfortunately that was the last hurrah for John who compered the event as he was extremely poorly and died within a couple of months of taking office. He died in the Hospice at the height of the covid pandemic so it was very difficult for the family and this association to pay John our respects.

The picture shows John presenting a gift to the speaker, Peter Armitage, at our 50th anniversary celebrations.

The family were keen that John should be remembered not only for his contribution to this association but also as a bowler. His bowling career started at the ICI Recreation Club and he played through their many guises of Zeneca, Syngenta and Canalside and was instrumental in negotiating with Huddersfield Town to move the club to Moldgreen Conservative Club with the veterans teams playing under the Huddersfield Recreation banner. John was no ordinary bowler and played at Inter-District level for many years.

John’s immediate family of wife Doreen and sons Jonathan and Jeremy gave a brand new trophy to the association which replaced the Elite Players trophy. The first opportunity we had was as the finale to the 2021 season. The family generously donated the prize money and the main prizes for the raffle, Huddersfield Recreation donated £100, the entry fees went into the fund and raffles at the event and the subsequent presentation events raised nearly £500 in the first year.

The competition has grown year on year. This year we widened the entry requirements but ran it on essentially the same format as in 2021. The preliminary round was played at Thongsbridge and the final at Brockholes where John played in his later years. This year we had a couple of small donations during the summer and the winner, Gary Foulkes of Waterloo, immediately donated his £100 winners prize to the fund which meant we could break through the £500 banner.

Doreen Hoyle helped our President Frank Greenwood and the writer present the cheque to Judith Ambler of The Kirkwood. A full report of the event can be found on https://www.thekirkwood.org.uk/news/huddersfield-vets-bowling-association-raises-another-550-for-the-kirkwood-i