LUTON TOWN BOWLING CLUB - Key Persons
The money to build the pavilion and lay a new green was funded through the issue of debentures and shares and the facilities rented back to the Bowling Club at a rent of £12 12s 0d (£12.60p) per annum.
A Green Sub-Committee was set up to obtain Tenders for levelling and laying a new green and for the management of the Green thereafter. This Sub-Committee comprised of three members, Messrs Neil, Shane and Robinson. The matter of water supply for the Green was discussed in earnest but, owing to the extraordinary price the water company were asking to connect up a supply (no surprise there), it was resolved to obtain a pump and engine to enable water to be extracted from a well on the site.
The next step was to advertise for the position of Groundsman in the Luton News. This led to the first appointee on the 15th March 1912, Mr S Wiseman, who was employed on a wage of 10s 6d (52 p) for ‘three whole days or six half days as the Committee request'. The new Green was officially opened on the 4th May 1912 by the Club President, Mr H O Williams. Local dignitaries were invited and tea was taken on The Green.
It seemed appropriate therefore that the Club should win the Harmsworth Cup in the same year, the first time the cup had been played for. At the AGM on 6th December 1912 the Club adopted the colours of emerald green and old gold, a matter which was deemed to be sufficiently important to publicise in the ‘Luton News'.
In 1999 Roger Manning won the London & Southern Counties Lonsdale Trophy (Singles) last won by Stan Jackson in 1953, the County Fours was won in 2000 and the year after in 2001 Peter Burt won the County Tompkins Cup (Singles), the only Luton Town Club official ever to win this Trophy.
Then followed a spectacular year of success in 2003 with the Club bringing home the County Singles, Pairs, Triples and U25 Singles Championships and additionally winning Division II of the County League and finishing Runners Up in the Harmsworth Cup.
The icing on the cake was Tom Cawdell's success in going on to win the EBA Under 25 National Single's title at Worthing. Tom is one of only two National Champions that the Club has ever produced, the first being the Fours in 1928 comprising Messrs Tomlin, Hawkins, Ploughman and Tibbett.
In 2004 the Club won the Fours County Championship, the only Championship to elude us the previous year, and also the County League Division I title for the first time since the league began in 1978. This success was later to be repeated in 2006. To round the year off the Club reached the quarter-finals of the National Top Club Competition only to be narrowly defeated 3-2 by the eventual winners of the Trophy, North Walsham.
Stanley Albert Jackson represented England sixteen times between 1947 and 1958.
Arguably the pinnacle of his bowling career came in 1951 when he was runner up in the Singles of the All England Championships narrowly losing in the final to A Pikesley of St Albans.
Born at Ramsgate in Kent, Stan was a member of Luton Town Bowling Club for many years. He was Bedfordshire's Singles Champion in 1938, 1946, 1952 and 1953, won the pairs in 1958 and 1960, the Triples in 1952 and 1955 and the Fours in 1953.
He enjoyed further success in the London and Southern Counties Tournaments winning the Gold Badge in successive years in 1957 and 1958 and the Lonsdale Trophy in 1953.
He spent much of his working life in the retail furniture trade, primarily in a management role, eventually becoming a Partner in a carpet and furniture business in Harpenden. Stan passed away in December 1992 aged 87. His contribution to the development and reputation of Luton Town Bowling Club is immeasurable.