Lawn Bowls

Lawn Bowls just about ruined my working life when I was a younger fellow. I began playing as a forty year old on weekends and public holidays but always envied the older retired blokes because they could play midweek where the real competition was. So I began to take the odd “sickie” just so I could mix with the more experienced ‘take no prisoners’ type of player.

Wednesday was Men’s Pairs day at Kallangur Bowls Club where I first began bowling in 1984, and that was the one day I really looked forward to. To be seen playing amongst such esteemed company made me feel really proud and if I could prove myself there I knew I had made it as a good bowler. Some of the tips passed on to me by established players I can still remember and apply them today.

In my first year I won the novice singles and that feat alone ensured that I carry on and try to aspire to higher honours. I must have been doing something right because in my second year at the club I managed to be selected for 1st division Pennants, naturally as a lead. It wasn’t like today where younger blokes slip into the skip’s role after a very short initiation. In my day you played lead for at least two years before playing in a higher position in a team.

I’ll never forget how proud I was in my 1st year of Pennants playing with some of the club legends. I was awed at the particular shots my team members could play. The skip would ask the third to try and remove an opposition bowl from the head and more times than not he would be successful. How the third could pick out one bowl amongst all the others and remove it had me enthralled. I would arrive home that evening and tell my wife what marvellous players I had in my team, never once imagining that I would be able to play those same shots a few years down the track.

My favourite shot now is the full-blooded drive. Ian Schuback was dead right when he said it’s easier to drive than draw. But I never let it go to my head (excuse the pun) and I’ve always made sure I retained the ability to draw myself out of trouble when I needed to. It’s on windy days or when the greens are running quickly that the draw shot and the full-blooded drive earn their keep. I find the heavy draw through the head or the controlled weight shot are hit and miss affairs when the greens are slick.

It’s funny how a ‘throwaway’ prediction can become a reality. We were having a beer after touch football one Sunday morning years ago when I remarked to one of my mates that the game was becoming too fast for me owing to the fact more and more young blokes were taking up the sport. My mate said, “You’ll never give up touch football, what would you do?” I said, “Orrr, play bowls or something.”

Note:
Special thanks go to Ron (Ako) Atkinson for permission to include his cartoons on this page. Ron has more excellent cartoon drawings at his website, AKO’s Cartoons.