Bowls Oxfordshire was initially formed in October 2009, as an attempt to unify the County following requests from Bowls England to consider and implement this process.
However, at that point both the Mens and Ladies continued with their own organisations in the form of the OBA and BOL respectively. This operation continued until the Bowls Oxfordshire AGM in March 2022, where Club delegates, after discussion, asked for County representatives to consider the prospect and accomplishment of full unification.
Further detailed work to unify was commenced in April 2022, including full consultation with all 30 Clubs within the County at that time, covering a wide range of issues that affiliated members might have concerns about. The result of that consultation was that 28 affiliated Clubs were in favour of those changes to enable full unification, and only 2 Clubs against.
Members of all clubs had opportunities to comment as a result of the consultation initiative before the process was finally signed off by the Bowls Oxfordshire Executive Committee. Following a considerable amount of work by the BO Executive Committee and others , including the introduction of 26 new policy documents and a new fully inclusive Bowls Oxfordshire Constitution, an EGM was called for November 2024 attended by Club delegates and following the closure of the OBA and BOL, a new County set of officials were voted in, including officers for all four sections, to ensure an effective development structure was in place with section operating protocols ready to manage activities from April 2025.
The new organisation has a Bowls Oxfordshire Executive Committee, which has a new structure, and different roles than previously, consisting of a President, Vice President, County Secretary, County Treasurer, County Administrator, County Safeguarding Officer, a Communications Manager and the four Chair-persons from each of the four sections. The sections have a small structure to manage at an operational level and consist of a Section Chair-person, a competitions secretary, a fixture and match secretary and a finance officer.
Although Section Chairs report to the Executive Committee, each section will have a level of autonomy , with a full list of fixtures against other Counties in both Mens and Ladies sections, including National competitions , and the ever increasing popularity of the Junior section , encompassing boys and girls doing the same, with the new Mixed section trialling games against like-minded Counties who wish to see a fully integrated mix of all genders playing games to broaden the horizons of new and existing members in playing the game at a higher level, if they wish, or just socially.
The over riding aim of full unification is to attract as many new players to the game in whatever capacity they wish to play in , and to encourage in every way possible their participation, across all ages from 9 to 99.
New initiatives will be considered to enable this to take place with as much involvement from Clubs and affiliated members as possible, to ensure full interaction takes place , and the County is not afraid to listen, and wherever possible to respond, with better communications via the new role of Communications officer via Social media, and it is hoped sponsorship by companies willing to invest in this positive and inclusive approach.