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Warwick and Worcester County Bowling Association's best known and most capped county players Bill Challoner has died age 96. A member of the Brookhill Bowling Club his success story was a bowling catalogue of achievements locally which is unlikely to be repeated.
Bill started playing the game in 1929 at the Bromford BC. He won their Championship Cup, which was the first of many honours to come his way.
There were so many competitions he won over the years that his record qualifies to be entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
Bill joined the Barley Mow BC in 1932 moving to the Brookhill BC in 1946 where he remained. He won the Farcroft Floodlit event six times. He also lost two finals and his record is unsurpassed in the event, which is now defunct.
He won the County merit in 1963, the M&B Champion of Champions in 1955 and 1956, and the BBSBA merit on two occasions. He qualified for the BCGBA Merit Finals several times, reaching the quarter finals three times and semi-finals twice.
Billy played for the W&W county team on 108 occasions from 1938-1971.
He captained the Brookhill for 20 years before handing the reigns to his son Derek. Bill was also keen on the administrative side of the game, being club secretary for 13 years. He was also a life member of the County Association.
No-one should be in any doubt that Bill was a tremendous force to be reckoned with on the green and he was always someone to miss in the draw. It was always difficult to hold conversations with Bill when his main concern was to raise two hands in the air at the completion of every end.
In some ways he suffered because of his ability, and he knew about the loneliness of being isolated by success but always recognised that involvement and service to the game went some way to redress the balance. Bill set a target for everyone to be aiming at and never minded if someone beat some of the records he achieved. The respect he recieved throughout the local bowling fraternity, and the knowledge and confidence which he generated, places him in the Sir Matt Busby status. It is hard to find someone who contributed more over the years than Bill, who will be sadly missed.
Taken from Jack High, Birmingham Mail,
Written by Mike Wakelam
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