THE memory of a popular north Lancashire bowler has started the ball rolling on a £50,000 appeal for a new pavilion.

Ted Beckett, who died at the end of May, played two to three times a week during the season at Carnforth and District Bowls Club, and served on the board for 11 years.

As a retired electrical and mechanical engineer, "there wasn't anything he couldn't do", his daughter, Kathryn Chambers, told the Gazette. The valued club member also took care of the club grounds until he became ill with mesothelioma, a type of cancer, and sadly passed away three months later.

The bowling green is at the back of the former Cross Keys pub on Kellet Road, which has been taken over by the company founded by Kathryn and her husband Mark, Provincial Hotels & Inns Limited.

The pub has been renamed Taps on the Green, in homage to the bowling club, and the Burton-in-Kendal-based company is arranging to entrust the club land to its members in perpetuity. "I just wish he was here to see it all," said Kathryn of her dearly-missed father.

The first of many fundraising events is to take place on Saturday, October 29, with a tabletop sale at the County Hotel, Carnforth, from 8am to 5pm. Visitors can expect books, bric-a-brac, clothes, costume jewellery, workshop tools, cakes, a silent auction, refreshments, and a hula-hooping competition. Tables are from £6, phone 01524 -732469.

As well as building a new, "more convivial and watertight" bowling pavilion, Kathryn said the hope is to secure the club's long-term future and to expand its activities "as a cornerstone of the Carnforth community". The club has around 75 members playing competitively and socially, and newcomers are most welcome.