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No lawn bowling in Campbell yet
By Kate Carter
Perhaps there is no lawn bowling club in Campbell because there are no lawn bowling greens. A new green was in the works as part of the Campbell Community Center's renovations, but was nixed when planners figured out there wasn't enough room for one. For Campbell residents interested in lawn bowling, the San Jose's Lawn Bowls Club is recruiting members.
About a dozen bowlers, dressed mostly in white and wearing flat-soled shoes, gather at Bramhall Park at the club's lawn bowling green, near the corner of Camino Ramon and Britton Avenue. They are there to indulge in their pastime and to introduce novices to the joys and challenges of a sending a weighted ball nearly 100 feet along meticulously trimmed grass in the company of supportive teammates and opponents alike.
"It's a very civil kind of game," says Helen Brady, 65, the club's treasurer. Her husband, Ken Brady, 73, was the club's president for three years. "But everywhere you go, clubs are shrinking."
Lawn bowling is an English sport similar to the Italian Bocce ball or French Petanque. It is played by teams and individuals, both amateur and professional, all over the world. In the U.S. it tends to attract senior players, and most of the 20-odd members of the San Jose club are over 50. But the group is trying to make its game accessible to people of all ages by hosting free and casual lessons twice a week--Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 10 a.m.
The Bradys have been bowlers with the San Jose club for about six years and they bowl several days a week, when they aren't walking or hiking. All that practice has paid off: Earlier this month, they competed in and won the John McLaren Lawn Bowls Tournament in San Francisco and also took first place in lawn bowling in the San Jose Senior Games.
This week, Aug. 23 and 24, the club will host the American Professional Lawns Bowls Championships.
Lawn bowling can be traced back in forms extending about 7,000 years. It arrived in England after Roman conquerors brought their game of Bocce to the island and it gradually evolved into its present form.
In lawn bowling, the balls are called "bowls" and are shaped in oblong spheres. One of the flatter sides is weighted slightly, giving the bowls a slightly elliptical trajectory. That curve makes lawn bowling more complicated than Bocce or Petanque. It also means that lawn bowling greens need to have well-maintained, flat and short grass and that the unique qualities of each green are important to competitive bowlers.
The lawn bowling season runs April though November, although local greens remain open all year.
Games can be played by individual opponents or opposing two-, three- and four-person teams. Players in singles and doubles games each bowl four bowls in a round, while players in triples games bowl three and players in four-person--called "rinks"--games bowl two. Between 14 and 18 rounds are played in a game, which can take up to three hours.
For more information about the San Jose Lawn Bowls Club, call Gillett at 408.226.6041.
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Campbell, California
