Lawn bowling is very popular in England, especially among people with gray hair.... no, Ron and I have not taken it up yet!
This photo was taken at Lyme Regis (On my last post I wrote about the beach at this town.) at a tournament between lawn bowling clubs. Notice that everyone is required to wear certain clothing. Different countries have different clothing restrictions, for example, Scotland requires matching shoes and I think it is Canada that requires men to wear ties! White is the normal color for clothes.
The black balls are not perfectly round, which makes them curve when rolled. The weight of the balls depends on the type of lawn. The object of the game is for your team to win points by getting its balls as close as possible to the orange (usually white) ball, which is called the "Jack", on the other side of the field. (Kind of reminds me of horseshoes.)
I read that the first lawn bowling club in England began in 1299. In the 14th century it was banned for the common people in England and France, because it was competing with archery, which was essential for defense. Of course, those bans have long since been lifted, and the popularity of lawn bowling has grown even more. It is also played in the U.S., but I have not seen it. Maybe when Ron and I are both retired, we will try it????---I don't think so....
4 comments:
They play this in the US too? Where? Florida? ;)
That is one game that I never heard about. How do they keep up with their balls? Very interesting.
You were right, Staci, lawn bowling is played in Florida---must be all those old people! It is also played in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states. I have not found it in Texas or Kansas, though! I did find some more interesting info. It was played in Colonial Williamsburg, Mount Vernon, and Central Park in NYC. It disappeared in the U.S. after the Rev. War, because lawn bowling was known as an English game. It was revived in the U.S. in the late 1800's. The name Bowling Green is the name of cities in Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio, S. Carolina, and Virginia. Bowling Green State University is in Ohio. I had always wondered about those names!
I have not been able to find out how a team distinguishes its balls from those of the other team.
Do you think our neighbors would be worried about us if we invited a bunch of people over dressed alike and rolled balls around the front yard? They would think we had joined some cult.
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