Raymond Noble traces the origins of lawn bowling back to the 13th century.
“The game’s been around for a while, it’s not new like pickleball,” quips the president of the Aurora Lawn Bowling Club.
Lawn bowling first came to Aurora to the turn of the century, the 20th century, about the time when the town boasted being Canada’s largest village.
The Aurora club got started in 1914 following on the heels of the development of other clubs across North America. Dedicated space was created on the grounds adjacent to the Trinity Anglican Church, to be shared with the tennis club.
By the 1930s, the club was using McMahon Park with a log cabin, moved from the Pefferlaw area and re-erected in Aurora, as the clubhouse. The cabin was moved again 40 years later to Sheppard’s Bush Conservation Area and a new clubhouse was constructed in the park in 1974 through funding from the town and Lions Club of Aurora.
The lawn bowling and tennis clubs are still connected, sharing their clubhouse with lawn bowling occupying the upstairs and tennis occupying the downstairs area, with their sports taking place alongside each other on the same property.
The Aurora Lawn Bowling Club is currently in the throes of celebrating its 110th anniversary on June 23, opening its facility to anyone interested in seeing what the sport is all about. There will be cake and other activities and the opportunity for newbies to give lawn bowling a try.
The sport traces its roots to Southampton in England, whose club has records dating back to 1299, suggesting it likely got started before that.
Noble believes it is currently most popular in Australia and New Zealand where tournaments attract a level of excitement he likens to what curling attracts in Canada.
Once you pick it up, Noble says, you tend to stick with it, making it a game for life.
The Aurora club had about 40 members last year, ranging from teenagers to players in their 70s, with many members in retirement age.
Noble likens lawn bowling to curling.
To begin with, there are eight rinks lined up side-by-side on the green. And the direction of bowling changes twice each week to accommodate healthy grass growth. The club is open four days each week with bowling orientated north-sound on two of those days and east-west for the other two.
The ball, or bowl which is used, isn’t exactly round given that there’s a weight bias on one side to help it turn as it rolls. Players deliver, and don’t throw it, to a target which is a smaller white ball called a jack. You have one foot on a mat, 21 to 27 metres to the Jack.
The key is the lawn bowls – they’re different sizes according to hand type so everyone needs to be fitted. The club has lawn bowls of all sizes new members can borrow for your first year at no cost.
Anyone interested in giving it a try are encouraged to come out, get some instructions and give it a try for free.
“It’s a relatively easy game to learn,” says Noble, who joined in 2006 and became president about a decade later. “If you get competitive and you get into tournaments. But it’s a hard game to win.”
