Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a privilege to be your President in the year that we mark 100 years of men’s bowling in Cornwall, and the honour is particularly personal as it was my grandfather, Eddie Chapman, who was President when the CCBA celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1962.

The CCBA can take great pride in its achievements over the years, National titles have been won and Cornish players selected to represent England. These achievements, together with more recent successes since the establishment of Bowls Cornwall, are set out this year in the men’s Handbook. The Handbook also contains a wealth of information about our Club’s histories and I thank the Club Secretaries for providing this material and Colin Staples and Peter Heayns for their sterling effort in gathering and collating these records.

I look forward to our special celebration matches including games against each of our founder Clubs, Falmouth, Helston, Penzance and Truro, and what more fitting start could we have than the visit of President Stuart Lake and his Bowls England team who we play at Kensey Vale at the beginning of May.

2012 for the Ladies sees a major change in that the early matches in the Johns Trophy are for the first time being played on a group basis – albeit that our group is smaller than initially arranged. For the Men the 2-wood singles competition is now a National Championship. Best wishes to all who will represent our County this year.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my 2 years as Junior and Senior Vice, under the helm of Michael Jennings and Jean Wilkins, who have been outstanding ambassadors for Bowls Cornwall. With the support of Senior Vice Fran Turner and Junior Vice Mike McPherson, not forgetting of course the support of my Club at Wadebridge, I shall seek to uphold the high standards set by both past and present Associations and look forward to meeting you on the green in 2012.

Yours sincerely,
Roger Priestley