Lionel Frank Pinchbeck (1919-1977)
LIONEL Frank Pinchbeck became one of Grantham’s best known characters in the 1950s/60s.
Large crowds would gather around Wyndham Park bowling green when he was playing, just to catch a glimpse of his antics.
Each time he rolled a wood, he would follow it along the rink giving it both verbal and signalled instructions.
He also played for the less public Aveling Barford and Grantham BC.
Between the wars, he was manager of the Central Cinema, High Street.
When it closed in the early 1950s, he became a storeman at Aveling Barford until his death.
Lionel, the son of Frank & Agnes was born at 9 Welham Street. When he married Grace Parsons in 1940, the couple made their home at 12 Welham Street and after his father died, Agnes moved in with them.
He organised bus trips for the neighbours in Welham Street where he lived all of his life.
He spent his annual holidays – in those days only two weeks – at bowls festivals at either Skegness or Great Yarmouth.
He was also secretary of Grantham Football Supporters Club and the St Wulfram’s Guild of Servers.
Lionel was a lovely man and he, along with Ron Howlett and Ted Squires taught the Wyndham Park teenagers to bowl in the late fifties and early sixties.
He was just one of the Club’ characters, Arthur Wand being another. Arthur always had a pencil behind his ear ready to mark his card and would lick the lead of it before writing down the score.
Lionel mostly wore a man’s cardigan on the green, be it white in matches or any colour for social games. After he delivered his bowl he would take hold of the bottom of his cardigan and twist it round to the right or to the left, depending on which bias he was bowling, as if steering the bowl to the jack. Happy days, happy memories.