Youth lawn bowlers rolling with it

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This article was published 20/08/2018 (2884 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The idea that lawn bowling is a sport reserved for retirees would be a hard sell to the group of athletes on the greens of the St. James Lawn Bowling Club last week. 

More than 40 young lawn bowlers from across the country gathered at the Winnipeg club to compete in the 2018 Youth Canadian Youth Championships from Aug. 14 to 18.

The tournament was broken down into junior and under-25 singles brackets with the top players in the older group vying for a chance to represent Canada at an international competition in Scotland later this year.  

Rob Law, 20, has been lawn bowling for 11 years and was one of three players representing Manitoba at the competition. 

“I started because of my grandmother, she brought me out to buddy day and I went to my first nationals two years later — after that I was hooked for life” he said. “The sport is relaxing, fun and competitive, which is always a nice combination.”

While Law had yet to roll his first bowl in the tournament when he spoke with The Metro, he was focused on his long-game strategy.

“We’ve got small pools so one or two loses is all you can really afford, so playing consistent and strong the whole week will be important,” he said.

Lawn bowling takes place on a grass field — or green — where players duke it out to see who can roll their bowls closest to a little white ball called a jack. Once all the bowls are thrown, the score is tallied and the players set up on the opposite end of the green. In the U25 bracket, the first to 21 points is declared the winner. 

Like Law, Saskatchewan player Jordan Kos, 18, has also been lawn bowling competitively for 11 years. Her pre-game ritual was focused on dialing in her technique.

“Someone once told me you’re not playing the opponent, you’re playing the greens,” she said. 

Both players are members of Team Canada’s youth development squad and have represented the country at international competitions. Kos has played in tournaments in China, Australia and Wales. 

“That’s what I love about this sport, you get to go to these different places and meet new people,” she said. “Being able to get there makes me want to push myself further.”

Kos was first exposed to the sport thanks to a newspaper ad and says she was “hooked after her first bowl.”

“There was an ad in my school newspaper for lawn bowling and my mom thought that they put in the wrong ad and it should’ve been in a seniors newspaper,” she said, adding that most of her family has also started lawn bowling.

Getting more young people interested in the game is high on the priority list for the players and organizers of the youth tournament.

“It’s one of the most challenging games I’ve ever played in terms of the strategy,” said Betty Van Walleghem, co-chair of the 2018 Youth Championships. “There’s just something about the game that hooks you and when you see these young people out here you would be astounded at the calibre that they can actually bowl at.”