The Club
The club plays in Frant Memorial Hall which is located here. The outdoor club from which the Short Mat club was spawned plays on the green next door.
What's occurring?
Last Match
Last match: Fri, March 25th, 2022 versus Heathfield Result: Frant 64, Heathfield 30
Next Match
Next match is against Rotherfield on Mon, January 13th, 2025 at 19.00 at
Rotherfield Dress: Club tops if poss & greys, format: 3 triples.
Forthcoming Events
On Tue, October 15th at 19.30, AGM & Roll-up. Venue: Frant Memorial Hall.
On Tue, October 22nd at 19.30, Roll-up. Venue: Frant Memorial Hall.
Join us
The club has roll-ups on Tuesday evenings starting at 7.30 pm. Recent welcome additions to our membership means that we cover the hire cost of he hall with a nominal roll-up fee of £3 per head but we do still have room for more new members. No experience is needed and we're happy to welcome people to one of our roll-up evenings. Please ask one of our contacts for details.
The club is pleased to have welcomed several new members already this season.
Inter club matches
The club has not played matches against other clubs since withdrawing from the Wealden League in 2022. Following the pandemic years, appetite for travelling long distances in darkness down country lanes to the southern clubs often in foul weather had waned and the league's decision to return to an arrangement of First and Second divisions from the post-pandemic's North and South divisions was the deciding factor. Nevertheless we are registered with ESMBA and ESSMBA and are considering arranging some friendly matches against other clubs in the coming season.
The club has had some success in the Wealden league in the past being runners-up in the first division in the 2015-2016 season.
More quiz news
Following on from the successful entry to Frant's quiz night back in March, a similar team entered the most recent quiz on November 24th. The bowls club team successfully answered questions on subjects ranging from Queen to cuttlefish (the band, not her late maj) (Queen not the cuttlefish). The quizmaster started announcing the scores in reverse order. It was therefore assumed, when the penultimate score was announced and it was the bowls club team, that we'd come second. Cruelly for the runners up though, when the final score was announced it was a lower score so we'd actually won! It must be admitted that the team was augmented by two younger non-members just in case pop culture was a factor. However every team member contributed so congratulations to all. The quiz was organised as a fund-raiser for improvements to the Memorial Hall and judging by the turnout it must have been highly successful.
Finals Night 2022-2023
The in-house competitions drew to a close with Mary Fairbrass winning the singles final against Hazel Sands and Chris and Audrey Hall beating John Young and Hazel in the pairs final. The season finished with the final roll-up on 28th March. Focus will move to outdoors for most of the members who play for the outdoor club on the adjacent green. The season there starts with a barbecue on April 18th. The presentation of the Short Mat trophies was at the end of season dinner on April 11th at the George.
History
The club has now been going for at least 25 years as this picture from 1996 shows. Sadly Graham Elton (back left), Brian Potter (in front of Graham) Alby Cox (beside Brian), Dick Smytherman (beside Alby) and Malcolm Pittam (behind and right of Dick) are no longer with us.
