Bowled over by a new challenge for our Summer Team Day 2024

We always look forward to our team outings and celebrations. We’re fortunate to have one twice yearly, with a summer get together and a Christmas meal. Our Summer Team Day allows us the opportunity to explore local towns or cities, it also allows us to try our hand at new things. In 2021 we spent the day punting in Oxford, in 2022 we traveled down the river by canal boat in Gloucester. Rewind back to last year, where we spent time challenging each other at crazy golf, followed by food, drinks and games at Bath on the Beach.

This year we chose to keep things a bit more local. Our head office is in Malmesbury which is a picturesque North Wiltshire town. We all enjoy going for walks on our lunch breaks in the summer and trying out Malmesbury’s various cafes when the weather’s not on our side, but one thing we’ve never tried… is bowls!

Malmesbury Bowls Club is tucked away across from the river and is only a 2 minute walk from our head office. Myself, Jen, George, Dan and Steve had little knowledge of the game between us. I think Dan and George had played just over an hour in their lifetimes.

We did check the forecast for the day (which wasn’t looking good) however we didn’t let that stop us! Come rain or shine the bowls teams play and that’s what we did. Alan and Graham were our hosts at the club, they gave us a fantastic introduction and explained their aspirations for modernising the sport and making it more accessible to all generations.

It wasn’t long before we all wanted a go. We headed onto the green to learn some of the skills needed. With the encouragement of our coaches we quite quickly managed to improve our skills. Our star player had to be Steve, who took to it like a duck to water. After a quick tea break (and escape from the rain), we decided to start a little tournament. One team did have the advantage of having a professional player to make the numbers even.

We really enjoyed our bowls experience and would recommend speaking to the club if you’d like to give it a go.

Our Summer Team Day, didn’t end here of course. We moved on to a newly re-opened restaurant called The Vine Tree in Norton. We didn’t take photos here as we were enjoying our meal and got heavily distracted by the food. It was a lovely day to spend time doing something outside the office. Which always helps to boost team morale too.

Next stop: the Christmas meal…