The Tony Bozward Shield: A Tribute to Service and Friendship
Tony Bozward was a native of Evesham in Worcestershire. Members of the club used to take the mickey out of him because of his Midlands/Brummie style accent, which he always took in good part.
He was a military veteran, serving in the army, spending a lot of his time in Kenya.
Tony joined the club in 2004 and quickly became very popular because of his friendly, amiable nature. He then joined the committee and made a valuable contribution to the running of the club. This was recognized quickly and Tony became Vice-Captain in 2007. But this turned out to be a difficult episode, because the Captain for 2007 left the club suddenly, without telling anyone, during the summer of 2007.
This meant we had no club Captain, so Tony Bozward took over the reins for the rest of the year, then took office as Captain in 2008. He did a great job and everyone was very appreciative of his input. However, we now had to nominate a President, and Ray White was proud to be asked, and he took the office of President for 2008.
Tony Bozward continued to play for a few years but contracted cancer and passed away in 2018. He was, and still is, greatly missed.
At his funeral, his brother, Vic, asked John Hunt, Shaun Tuohy and Vinny Marcroft if they would be pall bearers on Tony’s coffin with him, which they said was a privilege to do.
After the service, Vic said he would like to donate a trophy to the club in Tony’s memory, as he knew how much Tony enjoyed playing at the club.
This was very generous of him and we took up his offer because it was also very appropriate. We didn’t have a trophy for the Vice Presidents’ Prize. We only presented a voucher. It was the only competition that we didn’t have a trophy for, and Tony had been a VP when he passed away, so it seemed very fitting that we should accept Vic’s offer, have a trophy for the VPs’ Prize and call it The Tony Bozward Shield. And that is the trophy that members play for now.