What a fantastic night out for some of our Swindon Bats members during a weekend in October at Boom Battle Bar Swindon, where they took part in some Axe Throwing and Electronic Darts!

Many of our members were real pro's and managed to get a lot of Axes in the targets (even better than most of the sighted helpers!) Well done team Bats!

On 5 September, we were invited to join a team from the Zurich Community Trust for a meal at The Ridge at Shaw Ridge Leisure Park, Swindon, followed by two games of tenpin bowling. The meal of burgers, hot dogs and other goodies was booked for 5.30 pm which allowed us a chance to chat with our bowling opponents before the bowling action. 

After the meal, we all walked or drove to Tenpin Swindon where we were all booked in and ready to start bowling. There was a lot of excitement and banter as members of both teams scored strikes and spares throughout the game. 

There was a short break when bowlers were able to replenish their glasses and then game 2 commenced with the same amount of excitement. Again, many strikes and spares were scored and we enjoyed a very friendly atmosphere. Swindon Bats won the bowling match with a score of 7 games to 3. 

Thank you to Michael Flatman and his team for taking up our challenge – we hope to see you all again in the not too distant future.

Swindon Bats were delighted to meet such a lovely group of people from Swindon Lions Club recently which is a fantastic Charity in its own right supporting the local community in so many ways. Swindon Bats Chairperson Becky Harrison and Secretary Sue Mead were invited to talk about all our work within Swindons Visually Impaired Community.

We are now looking forward to a new friendship with the Charity which we hope will go from strength to strength.

You can read more in the below article about when The Bats met The Lions and how we would like to welcome new members to bith our organisations!

You can read more about this below in The Swindon Advertiser:

https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/24543369.swindon-visually-impaired-club-invites-people-join/?ref=fbshr&fbclid=IwY2xjawIUt49leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYXxYROTXRRvc5RCIgfnRANjDmk76WbZkzMYQBiS5znXJtApnQw46gR4tg_aem_EWLOEeF5VwlqwypGQsJSNA

An excellent oil painting of Maria features in an exhibition at the Wyvern Theatre called 'In Reach'. This celebrates the work of developing and professional artists who collaborate with Reach Inclusive Arts (RIA) proving that art is 'In Reach' of all. The exhibition is also celebrating 40 years of RIA

The exhibition runs until August 31st.

Maria is a member of RIA's theatre group. The portraits of the group's members have been created by LeighFletcher. For more details of Leigh Fletcher's work click here

To learn about Reach Inclusive Arts click here

Mark Flay from Zurich Community Trust writes:

I want to say a massive thank you on behalf of me, Sue, and the Swindon Bats to all the companies involved in this years event for coming along and making it such a success. I always marvel when Zurich employees come along to bowling with the Bats at how everyone just has a wonderful time and gets chatting and enjoys the evenings and last night was just the same experience. Thank you to all corporates for coming along with teams from 7 different organisations.

Big thanks to Hilliers, Intel, Midcounties Co-operative, Openwork, Swindon Bats, Swindon Town Foundation (c/o Intel) and of course Zurich. Thank you to the volunteers that organised the raffle, the supporters helping the Bats with their bowling, to Pete M who did all the scoring on the night with a fabulous spreadsheet, and of course all of the 54 attendees for making it such a fun event.

Regarding scoring, there were just 7 points between 1st and 3rd! Intel2 won with 1238 points, Openwork2 were a very close second, just one point behind on 1237 (!!), and Hilliers were in bronze position with 1231! Such a close outcome after around 3 hours of intense bowling!

Well done to our individual winners who were Steve and Elaine from the Bats, and Dean and Jo for the corporate bowlers!

It was an amazing night and despite running slightly over on timing, I hope everyone that attended from the different organisation had a great time.

The Bats aim to support anyone that has a sight impairment and wants to join them, but that isn’t easy for a charity that has an annual income of less than £6,000. The icing on the cake last night was that with the raffle and surplus money from entry fees the Bats will have raised around £700, which is a lot of money for them, so thank you to everyone involved for helping with that too.

Zurich teams bowl with the Bats around 4 times a year and host them for a meal and bowling twice a year, so if there is anything you can do as a corporate to support them then please do let Sue or Becky (Chair of Swindon Bats) know.

Dare I say it, but we hope to see you all again next year to do it all over again!

Written by Maisy McAdam:

On Wednesday 15th May, a group of Bats travelled up to Sheffield to 

compete in the delayed winter trios and the summer pairs competition, as part of the British Blind Sport Tenpin Bowling Championships. 

Swindon Bats were lucky enough to have several teams make it to the finals, all excited to work toward hopefully taking home some glory!

The lucky teams for the trios were

Bats strike it lucky: Sue, Russ, Georgia and Tracey.

Bats blind ambition: Maisy, Andy and Stuart.

The teams for the pairs were:

Bats blind ambition: Stuart and Andy. 

Bats women and Robyn: Nicki, Becky and Sue 

The delayed trios were much anticipated, supposed to be held the previous year, but due to the train strikes couldn’t go ahead, after a great night of socialising and a hearty breakfast at the hotel the trios teams boarded the bus and set off to the bowling alley for a day of hard work. This was like no other bowling game, it is 8 consecutive games!

The atmosphere was truly buzzing and all the teams got into their games, the sound of cheers, laughter and pins collapsing echoed all morning. Strikes, spares, splits and everything in-between were achieved and before we knew it it was lunch time, so we all took a well deserved break to refuel. More fun was to follow after lunch with teams all round doing well, that evening the bus came and for some it was the end of the playing, and a restful day ahead was planned, but for others it had only just begun!

The following day was the pairs which was just as exciting! A number of Bats had a second full day of bowling ahead. The atmosphere was great, many on their second day of play starting to notice the tiredness creeping up on them. But that wasn't going to stop any of the competitors from giving it their all! There were plenty more cheers, lots of laughter, and equally much relief at the end of the day with anticipation hanging in the air for the results to come.

That evening with barely a moments rest all the teams got in their best dress to attend the awards dinner, with so many achievements over the past two days, not least Andy’s incredible 200 pin game, it was inevitable that awards would be coming The Bats way, everyone was pleased however, with just how many awards were given to all of the hard working bowlers’.

For the trios 2023 competition:

Bats strike it lucky came 10th overall.

Bats blind ambition came 7th overall.

Top of division B was Bats blind ambition, coming away with a trophy for each player. 

Summer pairs:

Bats blind ambition 4th place overall.

Bats women and Robyn 11th place overall.

All the teams did exceptionally well to even get to the stage of the competition they did and should be incredibly proud. 

Next up were the individual awards, where yet again, Bats came away with so much recognition:

The most improved female award went to our very own Georgia!

The pairs highest handicap score went to Blind ambition.

The highest individual handicap male for the pairs went to Andy.

Highest scratch game in the pairs went to Blind ambition.

The highest male scratch in the pairs game went to Andy. 

Truly an incredible result and a testament to the hard work, teamwork and friendship within the Bats.  

See our Gallery for more photos

February 12th 2024 saw 18 Bats members and their families/carers visit the iconic Cadbury World in Birmingham.  

We travelled by coach with Barnes to make sure the day ran smoothly and everyone could enjoy the journey there. 

Once we arrived we were able to get special access wrist bands which meant we could get into the venue with staff support and via a special entrance. These kinds of inclusive, disabled friendly passes are incredibly helpful especially when your travelling with such a large group of VIPs! 

Once inside, Cadbury World did not disappoint. We were all given a selection of chocolate bars on entering the museum and factory to enjoy when we got home, and for some who couldn't wait that long a nibble on the way round!

The museum explained lots of fascinating facts about how to make chocolate, where chocolate comes from and how it came to be that Cadbury became one of the worlds most popular chocolate makers. 

There was even a ride around a chocolate world with little singing cocoa beans. There was also a 4DX Cinema showing the audience just how much actual shaking those cocoa beans need during the making process of their delicious Cadbury bars, definitely not one for the faint hearted!

The factory section showed us exactly how chocolate is made and allowed us to try some delicious fresh, melted chocolate and write our names with it on marble slabs. 

The cafe also supplied some surprises, including chocolate flavoured pizza on the menu!

All in all it was a great day out with lots of fun and laughter and of course lots of chocolate from the gift shop, I wonder if anyones got any left?

On Monday the 19th of February 2024, 24 Bats members went to The Ridge Bar & Grill Restaurant for a special Thank You meal.

For those who might not already know, the Tenpin Bowling Alley where the Bats Bowling group meets and plays twice a week on Wednesdays and Thursdays was refurbished last year. During this time Tenpin were unable to store our bowling balls and accessible bowling equipment.

We were left wondering what to do and whether or not we would be able to continue to meet and play whilst the building work took place if we couldn’t store our equipment. In the end the refurbishment process lasted a considerable amount of time, almost a year in fact!

But to our surprise and great relief, The Ridge Bar & Grill came to our rescue and stepped in to help. The owners and staff were extremely kind and allowed us to store our bowling balls and equipment in their store rooms at the back of the building.

This meant us trundling through their premises a couple of times a week taking the balls backwards and forwards. It was an enormous help having the balls kept so close to Tenpin and allowed us to continue to play. We would have been absolutely lost without them offering the space to us, and all for free! 

As a charity helping those with visual impairments get involved in sport and leisure activities, being supported by The Ridge really made us all feel part of the wider community and meant our bowling group could continue to play our all important British Blind Sport League matches. We really appreciated such an important act of kindness. 

At the meal we were able to present the fantastic staff with a framed certificate and give them a very well deserved round of applause.

Click this link to go to the Ridge website: The Ridge Bar & Grill