This section was established during the 2014 winter season as a result of the move to our new facilities at Holbrook in the same year.

June 2023

Three of our members competed in the Summer County Shortmat Open Over Sixties Triples finishing in the “Silver” position. Please see link below.

West Sussex County Shortmat Bowls Association. 

In 2015/16 our newly formed short mat bowls team, Horsham Hotshots, joined the West Sussex County Short Mat Bowling Association bowls league and entered into North East League Division 2. Since then our team has thrived and has progressed to Division 1. Many of our bowlers have been registered with the ESMBA which allows them to play in friendly and competitive matches against other short mat clubs. Hotshots played in 23 fixtures last season from October through to March.

The short mat section has introduced its own knockout cup competition called the Redwood Trophy, named after senior bowling club member Archie Redwood, who kindly donated the trophy. The Redwood is a non-seeded mixed singles competition played annually and is an ideal entry point for new bowlers as the trophy can only ever be won once by the same person. In addition to the Redwood Trophy we have Championship Singles and Championship Pairs competitions along with Monday evening and Thursday afternoon internal leagues.

Our short mat players meet every Wednesday evening for a practice night before we play our league and friendly matches against other clubs over the weekend.

The weekend starts with our Friday Night Social Evening. This is an informal social get together for our short mat bowlers where they play for fun. Hot food is often available on the night, the bar is open for a drink or two and the evening ends with a quiz. It is a great way to finish off the week and start your weekend. 

Covid Safe: In line with other short mat clubs at this time we have had to implement some bowling restrictions to ensure that we mitigate any risk and are a Covid safe environment. An online rink booking process and ‘track & trace’ system have been established so that we can monitor usage of the clubhouse at any time.

The club has recently obtained Covid safe bowls status from WSCSMBA and ESMBA. Its certification award allows for short mat bowls to be played in a safe and secure way within our clubhouse. Only two out of our usual three mats have been laid down to ensure that we stay within the guidelines we have been given. All club members have been issued with Covid Safe procedures to follow whilst using the clubhouse facility. It is our hope and expectation that the current Covid restrictions will be temporary, we intend to return to bowling on all three mats as soon as it is safe for us to do so.

If you are interested in Short Mat, or Outdoor Bowling, and would like to know more about Horsham Bowling Club, please get in touch using the form on our Contact Page.