Men’s Group Bowls

Fancy A Bowl Anyone?

We men certainly fancied a bowl and under the expert tutelage of David Danton and Jim Rogers, together with a couple of volunteers from David’s bowls club, ten of us enjoyed a really pleasant evening’s bowls at the Woodlands Bowls Club adjoining Woodlands Park.

You’d think Bowls was a doddle; all you have to do is to roll your spherical bowl (called a ‘wood’) in the right direction and with the right strength and you should be able to roll right up alongside the little white ball (‘jack’) the 30 metres or so to the other end of the green. Except that it’s not easy, and, oh yes, the bowl is weighted to one side so that when you bowl it the thing moves in a banana shaped curve.

Essentially the idea is for your team’s bowls to be nearer the jack than the other team’s but it’s devilishly difficult and of course there are demon tactics such as knocking you opponent’s ball out of the way or hitting the jack and moving it to a different position. Of course being a tad naive we thought that within half an hour or so we could master what our experts had spent the last 20 to 30 years trying to master and yes, we received our comeuppance with bowls bananaring all over the green with only a few randomly going anywhere near the jack.

Some of us were powerful ten-pin bowlers, used to bowling at great force to knock skittles over and one or two of our experts were kept on their toes leaping out of the way of thunderbolts sent down by some of our rookies. Some of us were looking for divine intervention; Frederick could be seen on his mobile before his turn presumably attempting to google the Bible for an appropriate verse while our Rector could frequently be seen dropping to one knee following the release of his bowl, maybe in silent prayer for its safe deliverance!

It wasn’t all doom and gloom though and there emerged some exciting prospects. In one of the games Don and Bryan showed a deft hand, delivering many of their bowls within range of the jack and impressing the experts while in the other game the young guns, Darren and Dave (Cadwallader), were equally impressive, closing in on the jack on numerous occasions.

A really fun time, then, and an evening which wouldn’t have been possible without David Danton who organised it and gave his time coaching without actually playing (and showing us up!) Special thanks too to the two club members (Geoff and Dave) who gave their time so generously to help us.

Colin Nice