Lawn bowlers from across the region descended on Elmira last weekend.
Players from Elmira, Guelph, Elora, Waterloo and Kitchener all competed in the annual Canada Day Elmira Lawn Bowling Club tournament. The club, which has been hosting the event for years, also marked its 85th season.
The Elmira club first opened its greens in 1928 and was located downtown before moving to its current location on Mockingbird Drive in 1979.
“This is a big tournament for our club and we have a lot of people who want to play. We have never had an open spot during game day,” said Harold Heimpel, former president of the Elmira Lawn Bowling Club.
The maximum number of teams that are capable of competing in the tournament is 24, with two members on a team.
The first round of the tournament is a draw, pairing teams up against one another. Winners of the first round would then precede to play other winners while losers would play losers. The third round would have two-time winners competing against each other with the top teams winning $100.
Lawn bowling, also known as bowls, is a sport that originated in the 12th century and is played by men and women of all ages.
“It is something that can be done at any age. The game doesn’t require you to be an elite athlete like some sports,” said Heimpel. “Skill and strategy are the two main factors that are involved and these can be successfully developed over time.”
The objective of the sport is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a jack. It is played on a flat pitch, normally outdoors on natural grass known as a bowling green which is divided into parallel playing strips called rinks.
Competitors usually flip a coin to see who wins the mat and rolls the jack to the other end of the green to serve as a target. Once it has come to rest, the jack is aligned to the centre of the rink and the players take turns to roll their bowls from the mat towards the jack and build up the head.
A bowl may curve outside the rink boundary on its path, but must come to rest within the rink boundary to remain in play.
Lawn bowling at the club generally begins during the long weekend of May and runs through until Labour Day weekend in September. Members bowl on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and take pride in the club’s casual and non-competitive atmosphere.
“This is one of the greatest clubs in the region. Everyone here is so friendly and willing to help out and no one makes the sport very competitive,” said Guelph resident Warner Gregg, who was competing in the tournament.
Heimpel said most lawn bowlers either play or played five-pin or 10-pin bowling and this is a natural progression into the sport.
It is a popular sport the world over, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
The club has members ranging from teenagers to seniors in their late 80s.
“It is great to see a large range of ages playing the sport. It just takes some time to learn the skills needed for the game but anyone can be taught that,” said Heimpel. “It is a very social sport and most people play for that aspect of it”
The next tournament at the club is the Ray “Tippy” Weber Memorial tournament to be held on Aug. 5.
