East Coast Crown Green Bowls Festival set to be revived
There has been some definite news on other major crown green bowling events in this district.
The Whitby Festival is set for the week Monday May 18 to Friday May 22 and it is proposed to revive the East Coast Festival but to centre it on Eastfield from Monday August 24 to Friday August 28.
The exact formats of these has not been finalised but both will feature different formats on each day, the one certainty being that the Fridays will be a singles for the overall title.
This year the Whitby Festival became a qualifying event for the All-England Champion of Champions and it is hoped that both competitions might be on the reserve list for qualification in 2026.
The Eastfield Festival has been organised to try to help the club survive a period of falling membership and growing financial pressures.
In addition to these the date for the Gambart Baines Challenge Cup has been announced as Bank Holiday Monday, August 31 2026.
This follows on from the Eastfield Festival so visitors might want to take the opportunity to enter the Festival and stay over for the Gambart Baines.
There is one slight uncertainty with the Gambart Baines which is that the management at the Alexandra Bowling Centre may try to increase the charge for using the two “traditional” greens.
Originally when it was run directly by the Council there was no charge for these even though the greens were taken up on Thursdays throughout the summer for qualification.
There has now been a charge of £300 for the final day only for the last three years. If this is increased it will not be viable to use them but if this is the case arrangements are in hand to use other greens in the Scarborough area for the competition.
Entries for both Festivals and the Gambart Baines are being taken by Paul Morgan, contact details on various bowls related Facebook pages.