On Saturday afternoon, Wadebridge Bowling Club welcomed Wadebridge Memory Cafe to play at the club.
Kevin Smith reports.
The Memory Cafe offers a supportive place for people living with memory loss and their families, care partners and friends. It holds meetings twice a month at the John Betjeman Centre, where there are songs, talking and activities. And tea. Tea is very important, with cakes baked by participants, served at 3.15.
WBC put in its draft development plan a desire to become more inclusive. I am friends, through Rotary, with Tim Jones, the Memory Cafe facilitator, and I thought we could do something together, so I spoke to him about the Memory Cafe coming to the club for one of its meetings. The committees of both organisations supported the idea and 22nd August popped up as a date which was not only free on the green, but also a scheduled Memory Cafe meeting date.
After sorting out the details, around 30 people came from the Memory Cafe and nearly 20 from the club. They were greeted by 'Welcome' signs at both gates, and familiar people stationed there to reassure them that they were in the right place.
Barbara Bell found a name-badge kit, with some names already on them, but easy scope to create new ones. Some members already had name badges or names on shirts. The Memory Cafe had its own badges for its attendees.
The Memory Cafe began as it usually did, with a couple of songs. Tim explained how this time it would be a bit different, and introduced me. “Welcome to Wadebridge Bowling Club,” I said, with great originality, and explained how bowls was a great activity for people of all ages and we wanted to spread that message.
Then we all went outside. We didn’t know in advance how many would actually want to play — Tim had thought maybe 15 or so — and had set out mats and jacks at four rinks, estimating four Memory Cafe people to a rink. It turned out that we needed another rink, but that was fine. We could also have 3 or 4 members to each rink.
Playing groups self-organised. Some of our members knew people attending and went with them. One rink consisted of three former club members and another who had played elsewhere previously. They settled into a proper match, with scoring and everything. For others, just learning how to deliver the bowls and trying to get them near the jack was fun enough.
Tim had prepared indoor activities for anyone not wanting to play (this was also the back-up plan in case of rain) but those not playing wanted to sit outside and watch instead. Part way through, two ladies who had been watching asked if they could have a go, so we reorganised to let them.
Nearing 3.15 people started looking at their watches and deciding whether they could get in another end before tea. As we finished playing, some light rain began, right on cue. Memory Cafe went back indoors for tea and club members packed away the kit before (in some cases) joining them. After tea, the routine of Memory Cafe re-asserted itself with comments and views from the participants on the afternoon’s activities (all very favourable about the bowls and the club), closing remarks from Tim and me (I invited everyone to come back again another time), and two more songs.
We had no idea how it would go, and things might have seemed a bit chaotic when everyone was going onto the green and finding a rink to play on, but it all worked. We got a good vibe back from the Memory Cafe (a few even asked about joining the club) and club members also said they enjoyed it — a win all round.
Thanks to everyone who came to help. I’m going to take a risk and mention names, at hazard of forgetting someone – which in the context ought to be forgiveable anyway…
Barbara Bell (who sorted out the catering arrangements with Margaret at Memory Cafe), David Atfield, Di Dingle, Penny Lloyd, Chris Chun, Marc Cohen, Jan Howells, Mark Howells, Peter Stone, Lorraine Davies, Barry Davies, Helen Howarth, Terry Darby, Dave Shaw, Chris Dymond and Mark Tapley.