Richard Hood and Mel Oates are to be inducted into the UK Tenpin Hall of Fame in 2025, The Men’s and Women’s awards are kindly sponsored by Bowltech UK
Andy Penny will be inducted in the Distinguished Service division. Sponsored by Go Tenpin.
Nominations were made by each of the ten members of the UK Tenpin Hall of Fame committee and a list was drawn up. The Committee then had access to the UK Tenpin Hall of Fame Database to research details on each player and a ballot was held to find the final Male, Female and distinguished name to be inducted in 2025.
The inductees selected were chosen for their achievements in World, European and Domestic tournaments since the start of UK bowling in 1961 and for additional honours like Bowler of the Year awards and induction into the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame.
As well as the players being celebrated and honoured, a distinguished service award was again selected.
Since the sport arrived on our shores special individuals all over the United Kingdom have dedicated their time to improving the game and working tirelessly to make the sport better for everyone. From Proprietors, National Associations, YBC officials to tournament organizers and media, these people are the backbone of our sport and make it possible for bowlers to reach for the stars.
So here is a brief run down of the 2025 inductees
Mel Oates
Mel is quite simply a World Champion having won the AMF Bowling World Cup in Lisbon, Portugal in the year 2000 by defeating a future two time World cup champion Clara Guerrero from Colombia and putting Wales on the global map.
Mel first bowled for Great Britain and won team Silver in the 1992 European Youth Championships in Brussels. More junior titles with the 1994 NAYBC U18 singles and All events winner at Nottingham. Team Gold at the European Youth Championships and Bronze doubles in Helsinki, Finland. Silver in the European Cup in Israel in 1995 and BTBA Nationals winner in 1996. A Welsh Open winner in 1999 then the big win in 2000 and Triple Crown winner in 2002. Sixteen years later back to win the Welsh AMF World Cup qualifier in 2018 and winning the 2019 Welsh trials then the Welsh National Championships in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Richard Hood
Richard scores his first points in the Hall of Fame way back in 1982 by winning the Premier Tenpin Bowling Club title at Tolworth, then winning in 1983 in Wolverhampton and a National Scratch tour title also at Wolverhampton rounded out the 80’s
The 90’s saw two wins in the Scottish Open, World of Tenpin Invitational, BTBA Nationals All events, CocaCola Fives, Euro Fives and Paris Fives, more PTBA wins and lots of international titles and medals starting in the Commonwealth Invitational in 1995 plus another Scottish Open title, Team Britain ranking event wins, South Africa Cup winner in cape town in 1997, Silver in the 1998 Commonwealth Championships in Malaysia, BTBA Masters champion, More Euro, Paris and CocaCola Fives wins. Not forgetting a fine European Champions Cup Silver in 1999. The 2000’s were also productive with wins at the BTBA Nationals, Scott Banks Memorial and the British Matchplay. Back 10 years later and winning the 2017 Triple Crown Masters and European Senior Championships Silver.
Andy Penny
Andy started out as a talented left hander before working in the bowling industry as a pro shop operator where he has gone on to become probably the most experienced ball driller in the UK today. Starting in Stevenage in the 80’s and together with wife Shirley, the Ballmaster proshop moved to Enfield in the 90’s and now resides at Go Bowling Dunstable.
The first on our shores to become a USBC qualified Gold coach, who would go on to win a lot of medals as manager, coach and then head coach with Team England and trained some of the country’s best ever bowlers including his own daughter Kirsten who is the UK’s greatest ever female bowler and top of the Hall of Fame rankings. Voted as one of the top 100 coaches globally by bowlers Journal.
Andy has always been at the forefront of coaching methods and using cutting edge technologies to help bowlers understand the science of the sport and mental game to improve and continues to coach, help and train bowlers and athletes up to the very highest levels.
