During the Summer of 2023 Bats Chairperson Becky and her husband Uan managed to complete their very own Salt Path Challenge and raised an incredible £2,000 for Swindon Bats. Their total distance covered from Weston Super-Mare to Minehead ended up a staggering 54 miles exactly with a total walking time of 18 hours over 4 days.

This year Becky and Uan are back and this time they plan on racing across the South West to get from Penzance in Cornwall back to Swindon in Wiltshire in just 5 days, sounds easy enough right!?

Except the only form of transport they will have available to them is Walking and Becky's trusty Disabled bus pass! 

Think BBCs Race Across The World but on The UK Buses!

For many Blind and Visually impaired people in particular a Concessionary/Disabled bus pass is a life line and can give individuals a route out of isolation. 

So with this in mind Becky who is registered severely sight impaired/blind and her sighted husband Uan will be taking on the mammoth challenge of navigating through 5 counties (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Bath and NE Somerset and Wiltshire) in a race to get back home in just 5 days!

They will start their journey by catching a train to Penzance setting off on a Tuesday morning to return by Saturday. With no overnight accommodation booked they will need to find accommodation or take their chances with some wild camping along the way!

Please donate if you can via the link below. Anything big or small is incredibly welcome. Swindon Bats relies solely on funding from fundraising and grants so every little helps!

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/xnZ9ZqgW 

Thank you! 

Monday 19th of May was a very exciting night for everybody here at Swindon Bats. It was our annual inter company match where Swindon Bats play bowling alongside local community groups. This year was our biggest one yet, an amazing 14 lanes and  82 attendees.

A special thank you to teams from seven different organizations: Arval, Hilliers Funeral Service, Rutpen Ltd, Midcounties Co-operative, The Openwork Partnership, Swindon Bats, and Zurich. Your enthusiasm and sportsmanship were truly inspiring!

Congratulations to Midcounties Co-operative 1 for clinching the victory with 1355 points between them. 
We can’t wait for next year and hopefully it will be bigger and better than ever.

Special thanks  go to Becky, Sue, and all the volunteers for their hard work leading up to and on the night of the event. Overall, more than £800 was raised which, for a charity as small as ours, is incredible. 

Thursday 15th May saw two Bats teams travel up to Sheffeild for the annual finals of the Winter Trios bowling championship: 

Bats Tornados: Becky, Russ, Tracy, Dave

Bats Strikers: Shaun, Sam and John 

Both teams worked very hard to get to the finals and we are all very proud of them. Accompanied by Michelle, Bats volenteer.The teams played incredibly well all day, this was reflected in the awards meal that was held that evening. overall the results were:

Bats Tornados came 9th place, and Bats Strikers came 5th place! Our very own Becky won highest female handicap and a wonderful surprise when Michelle was awarded best volunteer! 

All round a fantastic result - and with the Winter pairs about to start keep everythin crossed that we have another successful year of bowling. 

Swindon Bats had a fantastic opportunity this month to experience a fully accessible Cycling session at The Moredon Sporting Hub. 

5 Visually Impaired riders and 2 Bats Volunteers got to try their hand at a selection of adapted bikes and trikes looping around the incredible purpose built track. 

The session was great fun and fully accessible for all abilities and levels. The volunteer pilots and staff were a fantastic help and really kind. The Sports Hub and Limitless Swindon work really hard to put these fantastic groups on to make Sport as accessible as possible. 

Everyone had a brilliant time! We can't wait to go back and hopefully get a regular VI session up and running very soon!

Thank you to everyone at Moredon Sports Hub for having us, we've definitely caught the Cycling bug!

On Monday 24th of February, 14 Bowlers, 9 Spotters and 2 Scorers from Swindon Bats met with 13 members of Hilliers Funeral Service to play our second ever friendly match. 

Needless to say there were so many of us we practically took over Tenpin with no fewer than 9 lanes needed! And the evening certainly didn't disappoint, both games were really close and very exciting! 

But the scores were certainly looking different this time around compared to last years Bats triumph.

Swindon Bats were crowned the winners of the first game. But Hilliers stormed in during the second game taking the win from under the Bats feet! 

Final scores for the evening were: 

8 to Swindon Bats

8 to Hilliers Funeral Service.

Making the overall match a Draw. 

Highest score for Bats:

Ali with 150

Highest score for Hilliers:

Tracy with 131

The girls clearly showing us all how its done, well done ladies on some incredible scores! Hilliers team have definitely upped their game this year! Congratulations everyone on some fantastic bowling.  

There was much laughter and fun all round when the specialist replica VI eyewear came out and Guide dogs Tyler, Robyn and Bryony certainly all enjoyed all their fusses.

We hope that everyone at Hilliers Funeral Services enjoyed their time Bowling with the Bats as much as we all did.

Thank you to every one who joined us for making it such a fun evening. Heres to next year! 

We had a great time meeting Jane, Asda Haydon's community and customer champion. It was incredible to be awarded with a grant from the Asda Foundation for £1,000!

Back in April we had a really successful Bucket Collection and Awareness Stall at Asda which saw us meet lots of fantastic members of the public who took a real interest in our work and activities. 

A huge thank you to The Asda Foundation for supporting those with a Visual Impairment in Swindon access Sport and Social Activities. We run solely on donations, grants and fundraising efforts so really appreciate this fantastic opportunity to keep Swindon Bats going from strength to strength into 2025!

Thank you!

In early December a group of Bats took on a team from Zurich to have a game of indoor Kurling. There was a break for lunch where mince pies and mulled wine were enjoyed. The overall winner of the games was Bats member Ali, so a big congratulations to her! 

Thank you especially to Cheryl from Zurich for putting on a lovely festive challenge, for everyone to enjoy.

We hope to have many more opportunities with Zurich next year.

Swindon Bats had a fantastic night at our annual Christmas get together with 26 members joining us for a meal, Christmas themed quiz, raffle and even a little dancing! 

Big thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a wonderful evening.

Thank you to Westlecot Bowls Club for hosting us on the night.

A very special and heartfelt thank you to everyone on the Bats committee ( Sue Mead, Shaun Mansbridge, Maisy McAdam, Andy Cooper, Richard Carver) and our Chairperson Becky Harrison

For all their hard work throughout the year helping to make Swindon Bats a successful Charity and Sports and Social Club for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Swindon Bats are currently enjoying a 6 week course of indoor lawn bowls at the wonderful Westlecot Bowls Club.

All the Bats who are currently taking part are having lots of fun trying out their new Bowls techniques! We would like to say a huge thank you to all the lovely Westlecot Club members for giving such fantastic guidance and support to all our Visually Impaired members who have really started to improve on their techniques and skills.

Here's to more Bowls in 2025!

20 Bats members recently enjoyed a fantastic social evening of Skittles at The SouthBrook Inn in early December 2024.

Congratulations to the winning team on the night Bats Baubles! And well done to Bats Christmas Crackers for some very respectable scores! 

Lots of laughs were had and a it was a great opportunity to get members together for some quality time and a great fun social activity together, we hope to do this again soon!

Swindon Lions and Swindon Bats came together on 11 November fo a tenpin bowling competition. There were many strikes and spares scored on both sides and the match ended with a draw. After the first game the score was Lions 2, Bats 2 and at the end of the second game the score was Lions 2, Bats 2. So the final score was Lions 4, Bats 4. Well done everyone and here's to a re-match!

We were also all bowled over by the Swindon Lions incredible donation of £500 to Swindon Bats! Thank you so much for your kindness and ongoing support. 

A massive congratulations, to all those who took part in British Blind Sport Ten Pin Bowling National Summer Pairs Finals held in November 2024.

Swindon Bats had some incredible Results!

Bats Blind Ambition- Andy Cooper, Stu Neale and John Bowie: 2nd place

Bats Strikers-Tracey Nash, Sue Mead and Shaun Mansbridge: 4th place

Bats in the Belfry- Russel Riggs and Peter Noble (Dave): 8th place

Shaun Mansbridge - Most Improved Bowler

Tracey Nash - Female High Handicap

Well done all on your fantastic results!

A huge thank you to UK showdown Official members Robin and Tom for coming all the way down to Swindon in November to show Swindon Bats members how to play the UKs newest and most exciting Visually Impaired sport, Showdown! 

18 Bats members and sighted volunteers came along to Craven House for a Taster day which, saw us start to learn the ropes of the Sport. 

Swindon Bats will now be looking to take their first steps towards joining the UK National Showdown league with support from UK Showdown and British Blind Sport in 2025.

Thanks so much to everyone who took part on the day, it was brilliant fun and all those who joined us said they were really excited to get started. Swindon Bats are now definitely raring to go and looking forward to getting started in the UK Showdown League. 

So watch this space!

Becky could be heard on the Sue Davies show talking about two young children that went out of their way to help a visually impaired person in Swindon.

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Updated:17th July 2025