Wife pays tribute to well-respected Grantham bowls player
A wife has paid tribute to a man who took up bowls in his retirement and became a well-respected player and committee member before his death earlier this month.
Margaret Allen says her husband Bruce “never looked back” when he took up lawn bowls, playing for Vacu-Lug where he was club and fixtures secretary for 27 years.
Later, he was Grantham and District assistant secretary and he started to play for Lincolnshire Bowling Association, where he was section secretary for the Grantham/Sleaford area for many years.
Bruce was county president in 2012 and was proud of the many victories the team and individual bowlers achieved.
Margaret said: “Bruce played indoor bowls at Trent Road where he was a coach for many years, and he and I were presidents there.
“He was also awarded a life membership in recognition of all the time he devoted to his beloved game of bowls. “
Bruce died aged 74 after a six-year battle with cancer.
He had worked at Grantham College as a lecturer in building and construction for 25 years. A joiner by trade, when he was made redundant he went on to work as a manager for a conservatory company and lastly worked for Vale Garden Houses, in Londonthorpe Road.
Margaret, of First Avenue, and Bruce moved to Grantham from Farndon, near Newark, Bruce’s birthplace, in 1981.
They have two sons, one living in Holbeach and the other in Los Angeles, and one grandson, of nine months, who was the “apple of grandad’s eye”.
Margaret said she has received more than 150 cards of sympathy.
She added: “He was well respected and cheerful. He had a wonderful sense of humour.”
She said she was grateful to the “wonderful” carers and nurses who looked after him.
Bruce’s funeral was held at Grantham Crematorium Chapel, where friends and members of his bowls clubs lined the road to bid farewell.
“It was the perfect send-off,” said Margaret.