The Sharjah Filipino Bowling Club (SFBC) started in 1992 as a small group of Filipinos who love bowling in the Emirate of Sharjah. Games were played at the then 6-lane Continental Bowling Centre. Since then, the group has grown in proportion and in November 1995, the Club was formally established as the premier bowling group for Filipino expatriates in the United Arab Emirates residing primarily in Sharjah, Dubai, and the neighboring Northern Emirates. From its humble beginnings, membership stands at over 100 bowling enthusiasts today.

SFBC is a non-profit, non-political and non-sectarian sports organization. It exists to provide Filipino expatriates and other local and international communities an avenue to foster camaraderie, brotherhood and sportsmanship through the sports of amateur bowling. It further seeks to promote bowling as a legitimate sports through competitive events.

Management of the Club is bestowed on the duly elected and appointed Club Officers.

VENUE
In order to accommodate the growing number of members and teams, the SFBC has moved its home court to the state-of-the-art Dubai Bowling Center (DBC) located just on the border of Sharjah and Dubai. DBC is fully automated with 36 Brunswick synthetic lanes and has hosted numerous local, regional and international FIQ-sanctioned tournaments. All SFBC official league games and tournaments are held at DBC. The ongoing Sharjah Filipino Bowling Club League is held every Friday evening at 6pm with 15 participating teams.

CLUB ACTIVITIES

SFBC conducts several team and individual tournaments to give the opportunity to its members to develop further their skills. As such, regular league games are held every Friday and run for one full calendar year. Two regular conferences are held every year. The Friday League is a Team of Five event (mixed) participated in by a host of groups, clubs, associations and companies. It is played on a single round robin format in 3 games per round.

The Club also organizes other tournaments for its members. These include Singles Handicap Tournament, Mixed Team Tournament and No-Tap Singles Tournament. These events have proved successful over the years that they have become a regular fixture of the bowling calendar.

SFBC conducts a Bowler of the Month (BOM) competition as well. The men's division is grouped under 3 classifications (A, B, and C), while the women's division is one single group (open). All BOMs proceed to the Bowler of the Year competition towards the end of the calendar year.

Bowlers' classifications are A, B, and C for both male and women's division, based on their current league averages. Re-classification of bowlers is done on a yearly basis.

INTER-EMIRATES ACTIVITIES

All Filipino Bowling Clubs in the UAE have been federated into one single association - the Filipino Bowling Federation-UAE, otherwise known as FBF. The member clubs are: Abu Dhabi Filipino Bowling Club (ADFBC), Dubai Filipino Bowling Club (DFBC), Ras Al Khaimah Bowling Club (RAKFBC), Ajman Filipino Bowling Club (AFBC), and of course Sharjah Filipino Bowling Club (SFBC). In a calendar year, Invitational Games are held with each member club hosting the event on a rotation basis. As of this time, there are five active clubs in the Emirates, hence, 5 invitational games are held in a year.

INTER-GULF ACTIVITIES

Bowling is a thriving pastime for most Filipino expatriates in all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries - Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. In almost all major cities, at least one Filipino bowling club exists to serve the needs of Filipinos for quality entertainment.

While most clubs are formed as a way to divert Filipinos to more constructive activities, bowling has now become as competitive as ever. It has grown to become not only as a way to while the time away and to fight homesickness but also as a way to express one's competitive spirit. After all, most of the sporting honors the Philippines have achieved in the international sports arena come from bowling!

Today, the GCC All-Filipino Bowling Tournament is a regular yearly event. Hosting rights are rotated among all recognized federations and clubs. Now on its sixth year, SFBC will be hosting the 6th GCC games in 2003.