From Julian Horsey - Chadlington Bowls Club
Please find below an obituary for Anthony Hobbs of Chadlington Bowls Club, who died this week, (wc 22 Jan 2023)
It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the passing of Anthony. Our best wishes and thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.
Anthony was a lifelong bowler, who started playing alongside his Grandfather Roland, who was a founder member of the Chadlington Bowls Club. Not only was he an active player, but he was always an active committee member, latterly secretary and green keeper, with Peter Madeley, through the Covid period.
In addition to the committee work, Anthony was always the first to volunteer his time, machinery and storage capacity on the farm for all of the many jobs that need to be done in a bowls club. He played a massive part when the new clubhouse was built, always there with his old red front-loader tractor to help with any practical job. He and his wife Denise were great supporters of any social event held by the club, usually making up a table with various friends and family.
He is well remembered for being an enthusiastic and jovial Oxon and District league captain (although at times he would say that getting sixteen players was a bit like struggling to wrangle cats). Anthony always remained calm and considerate and was in every way a true sportsman.
Over the years Anthony proved himself to be a very useful bowler, having qualified for the County semi-finals on several occasions and reaching the National finals at Worthing in the triples and fours with Peter Heath and Ron Arthur. In addition, he and Ron won the men’s pairs a few times on the indoor rink at Chipping Norton. But maybe Anthony’s greatest legacy to the bowling community was his unwavering enthusiasm for the game in all its formats, the encouragement and help he gave to everyone and his vocal enjoyment when a shot played out the way he intended it.
As well as the great contribution Anthony made to Chadlington Bowls Club, he was always active in the wider village community and he would always be one of the first to sign up for a “Soup and Pudding” evening being held in the Memorial Hall. As he would say, it was always his duty to try all the pudding on offer, if only to be polite!
Likewise, his annual bonfire to celebrate his birthday, which happened to coincide with bonfire night, was always a joyous event for family and friends, as well as an ideal location to take all that old wood etc. that you had acquired over the year!
A larger than life character, who was always good fun to be with, he will be very sadly missed.
The Funeral will take place at 11 am on Friday 17th of February 2023, in St Nicholas Church Chadlington followed by burial in the cemetery and afterwards at the Village Hall.