What's it all about?

St Ives Bowls Club logo

Having played football since early teens, squash from early thirties and worked hard until my late fifties, on retiring guess I just missed that competitive edge to life. Had bought a second hand set of bowls ten years before I retired, just never got around to signing up with the local club.

It only took few sessions with a friend and I was well and truly hooked. Here was the competitive element I'd been missing so much, with the bonus it all takes place in a lovely and tranquil setting against very sociable opponents.

Being an optimistic kind of person, my initial thoughts were 'just how difficult can this be?'. So I entered all the club competitions as well as the pairs with my friend. Turned up for my first singles competition match ready to show the bowling world what I could do... and promptly got thrashed by an opponent who suffered from gout in his bowling arm and was considering giving the game up. Hmmm... maybe there's more to bowls than I thought.

Having discovered the game is deceptively difficult I trotted off to the library for a book on bowling. Got some tuition from my friend and more help from my brothers. Started going to the club roll ups for practise. Started to get a slight clue what it's about, although still got a lot to learn. Continue to get confused about the rules, the various club teams and when they play. My score for the 2013 outdoor season in the 9 competitive matches I played was won 5 lost 4.

Now struggling with indoor bowls, a completely different beast all together. Not sure if it's giving me any benefits, my main aim being to improve my outdoor bowls skills. The 2013 tab above gives a blow by blow account of my first outdoor season and the start of my indoor bowls experience. That continues under the 2014 tab.

St Ives Bowls Club