Jon Clear – August 2025

Thanks to Simon Tooley for putting together this life story. Our subject this time is Jon ‘C Thru’ Clear.

Joined the tourists in 2005

No. of tours: 17

Born in 1970

A big Liverpool fan, although he is a Brighton & Hove Season Ticket holder (someone has  to keep Roger company !)

Favourite drink : Spiced Rum & Diet coke, or Carlsberg, Fosters, or Carling (any of the weaker lagers).

Favourite food : Steak and Kidney PUDDING, mash & gravy, followed by a sticky toffee pudding and ice cream.

T.V. : He’s an avid soap fan (especially Emmerdale, Eastenders) , Midsomer Murders, or any detective show.

Music: Being a child of the 80’s it would be anything 80’s, but in particular Erasure

Mastermind Specialist Subject would be : Ashes cricket 1985-95 . Jon would have loved to play  cricket, but this just didn’t happen.

A POTTED HISTORY

Jon’s dad was a member at East Preston (EP) and encouraged Jon to take up the sport in the mid -1980s and after being initially coached by Doug Sherlock (a former County Indoor President), it wasn’t long before Jon was winning things. His first win was the EP Drawn Pairs in 1987 with partner Peter Palmer.

Jon had a spell away at Kingston University, where he got a 1st Degree in Mathematics & Computing modelling. His Dissertation back in 1991, was “To predict and map the potential spread of a potential virus pandemic”. Jon’s conclusion was a “Lockdown and Vaccination programme” was needed to be implemented in order to halt the spread of the disease! How very prophetic !

After Uni, Jon returned to Sussex and joined West Sussex County Council in their finance  department in 1993 and is still there 32 years later. Jon manages the council’s “surplus cash investments and borrowing portfolios”. His biggest nightmare came with the banking crash in 2008 and the collapse of several banks, leaving the county potentially exposed to the tune of £13m. However, over the ensuing years, due to his hard work, Jon has managed to reclaim all but £25k of these funds – no mean feat, given how much money was lost when these banks went to the wall.

Back on the bowling green, Jon played Leigh Prince in the Area Finals of the National U25s, however the Umpire was going to disqualify Jon for “not having the correct date stamp woods”. Leigh  graciously asked the Umpire to let Jon play and ultimately went on to narrowly beat Jon, but more importantly a long-standing friendship was forged that has stood the test of time.

Jon won his first EP Singles Title in 1996, followed by further wins in 2005 and 2006. Other achievements include beating Gary Wyatt in the Final of the Worthing & District Champion of Champion Singles. Indoors, Jon won the County Triples title in 2006, playing with Eric Pidgeon and fellow Tourist Richard “Doc” Dray. They went on to represent Sussex in the following year – only to DROP a 9 Hotshot away to Hanpshire (sorry Jon & Doc LOL)

Other Highlights include winning the County Outdoor Champion of Champions Title in 2006. After a spell playing for Tarring Priory, Jon moved back to EP in 2018, where he lost two Singles Finals  both to Tony Badain, before finally winning it again in 2023.  Jon has been The Tourists Champion on 2 occasions, most recently in 2024. Normally his mum and sister used to come and watch Jon bowl, but sadly his sister passed away with cancer in 2022.

Jon is involved with team selection at East Preston and in late 2024 was elected as Club Chairman. Jon also sits on the Tourists committee, where he has been our Treasurer for many years now and was awarded with the club Presidency in 2023 and has just completed two successful tours as President. Jon finally achieved his long-term goal of representing Sussex in the Bowls England National finals (August 2025), following winning the Sussex Outdoor Men’s Singles Championship in 2025.