A Brief History of the International Bowls Badge Collectors Club

The I.B.B.C.C. was formed in 1988 by our founder member Bill Wareham of Worthing Sussex.

He ran the club as a business venture which was known as Sports and Leisure Unlimited and sold badges by auction and fixed price sales.

There was a membership of some 120 members and came from all corners of the world- we still have a healthy 100 members today.

Bill also issued a quarterly news magazine known as Bills Bulletin Journal of the I.B.B.C.C. which we still adopt as our newsletter today.

After four years of running the club, Bill decided to emigrate to Australia for a better climate. So a meeting was held in Birmingham in August 1991 where Bill officially handed the club over to the members and where officers and committee were elected to serve the club. Bill was made our Honourable President in recognition of all his work to the club. The members took over the club in 1992 and fixed a £5 membership fee per year to cover running costs of the club. The fee has only risen to £10 today after 20 years and the club has gone from strength to strength and hopefully will continue to do so.

We operate today with the same format as Bill - 4 quarterly newsletters and badge auctions, where we continue to work for our members.

All badge sales are mostly members badges, where we help deceased members families to sell their beloved's collection and help them financially. We hope that by creating this website we may encourage other collectors to join us in this fascinating hobby.

- John Gibson