Benfield Bowling Club was formed in 1952 and had very modest surroundings compared to its modern day layout. Currently the Club has proven to be successful both on and off the playing surface with the transformation to a registered charity with the Charities Commission of England and Wales in 2016 and successful grant applications, most notably for a mower to allow the Club to maintain the playing surface by its own members. This has proven beneficial with new members joining the Club on a steady basis.

Our Club has a fully qualified coach and umpires at national level and, indeed, has coaching on a Saturday morning from 10am to 12pm across the season. All are welcome to attend and it does not matter if you are a member of another club or just a beginner, intermediate or advanced player. There is no obligation to play for the Club in leagues and you are perfectly welcome to have a "roll-up". If a membership is not taken out then a small charge for this kind of play will be made.

There are four parts to our Membership Form, one of which is the form itself. The remaining three are an information sheet, a General Data Protection Regulation Form (which is required by law as the Club is a registered charity) and a Member’s Fees Form. The GDPR form tells you what personal data is required by the Club in order to keep its records up to date and to show you how that data is gathered, stored, for what purposes it will be used for and, importantly, how you can ask the Club to delete parts of that data at any time in the future if you so wish to instruct us. The only data that cannot reasonably be deleted is your name and address, for example, as this would preclude you from being a member.

The forms tie in with the new GDPR Policy as of May 2018 and this document is available at the clubhouse.

All of the above are available on the Club Notice board at all times for your perusal as a member.

The Club is currently undergoing the transition from being an Unincorporated Charity with the Charities Commission of England and Wales to that of A Charitable Incorporated Organisation still within the Charities Commission. This new form of charity has several benefits over that of our current status and these can be readily found around the web. We hope to have this complete by the end of this year if not sooner.

We are also awaiting Newcastle City Council to take a draft agreement to their legal department for acceptance where the Club will gain a 99 year term for the lease of the grounds around the green and pavilion and also the building and playing surface. This forms part of Newcastle City Councils process of Asset Transferring many of its facilities to outside organisations who can best utilise the space offered for relevant activities where there can be extensive use of such by local residents and those surrounding the area. Progress will reported on site as and when it arises and again, hopefully, by the end of this year we may see completion.