Kent

The white horse of Kent or the white horse rampant is a symbol of Kent, a county in south-east England. The figure of the prancing (or rampant in heraldry) white horse can also be referred to as Invicta, which is the motto of Kent.

The badge of Kent County Bowling Association shown below has the Kent County motto “Invicta” shown beneath the Rampant horse, a motto both Men of Kent and Kentish Men and all our bowlers are still proud of to this day.

Full details of the history of our Association can be found along with a wealth of further information on our web site at: www.kentbowls.com

Details of our Ladies section can be found at: www. https://kcwba.co.uk/

Details of our Under 25s Men’s section: https://www.kentbowls.com/under-25s

The link to our facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/www.KCBA.co.uk

The link to our twitter account is: @kentbowls

The Kent County Bowling Association (KCBA) was formally created in March 1911 during a period in history when the rigid class system was still a fact of life accepted by almost everyone, and few people would ever expect or aspire to move out of the class into which he had been born.

Furthermore, the rigid social structure of this period, and its concern for what it saw as good manners ‘imposed standards of behaviour and a level of courtesy on its members that we would probably find difficult to emulate today. We occasionally hear said, usually tongue in cheek, that bowls is a game for gentlemen which should be played in a gentlemanly manner; but in 1911 that would have been a statement of fact not an ideal, or an implied criticism of some of the behaviour we might see nowadays. In those days bowls was a gentleman’s leisure activity, for only gentlemen would have had leisure time or the money to spend on it.

The inaugural meeting of the KCBA actually followed one held by the delegates of the English Bowling Association Kent District Bowling Clubs‘ at the Angel Hotel, Tonbridge, on 1st March 1911. It was attended by 41 representatives of 20 clubs that were scattered throughout the county. They were Beckenham, Bromley, Bromley Common, Bromley Town, Chatham, Cray Valley, Camden, Darnley, Forest Hill, Greenwich, Hythe, Maidstone, Margate, Shortlands, Thanet, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Tunbridge Wells Grove, Westerham and Woolwich and Plumstead. The meeting was chaired by Mr W. A. Sims who at the time was President of the English Bowling Association. The second part of the meeting was to consider the desirability of forming a Kent County Bowling Association. Mr T. Woof (Bromley) proposed and Mr H. J. Hancock seconded a proposition that a bowling association be formed in Kent to be called the Kent County Bowling Association. This was carried unanimously and Mr H. J. Green was thereupon elected first Honorary Secretary of the new Association. Under his new title, the Hon. Secretary brought the meeting to order and charged them with two duties:

a. To elect a Committee of eleven clubs.

b. To elect a President who was to be Chairman.

The eleven clubs elected to have a representative on the committee were Bromley, Chatham, Cray Valley, Darnley, Forest Hill, Greenwich, Hythe, Thanet, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells The Grove and Woolwich and Plumstead. Mr G. Judge (Margate) proposed and Mr G. E. Smith (Tonbridge) seconded that Mr W. A. Sims be President for the ensuing year [and] also that he be Chairman of Committee.

Thus, Mr W. A. Sims of Forest Hill became the first President of the KCBA in 1911, the same year that he was President of the EBA, and he also subsequently became the third Honorary Secretary of the KCBA.