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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Seb Sacco takes his turn to lawn bowl at Murphy Park in Sunnyvale. The Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club was formed 30 years ago and has members who bowl as frequently as five days a week.
Green On This Side
Lawn bowlers practice daily to prepare for tournaments, get exercise and have fun
By Amy Jenkins
When thinking about outdoor sports, golf, tennis and football are usually a few that come to mind, but some Sunnyvale residents are meeting in Murphy Park to take advantage of the greens that are specifically designed for the game of lawn bowling.
Whereas there are approximately 5,000 men and women involved in the United States, there are thousands of bowling green clubs and hundreds of thousands of players in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Overton speculates that the reason there are so few players in California, compared to the thousands from his hometown in England, is that there are so many other things to do here, such as skiing and surfing. After traveling internationally for tournaments, he says that the fastest greens are in New Zealand and Australia. He says that next year he plans to play in Hawaii, New Zealand and Fiji.
There are 58 active members of the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club, who enjoy the sport, exercise and socialization. Right now they meet Monday through Thursday from 12:30 to 3 p.m. to practice for the tournaments that will begin opening day in Oakland on March 23. In May there are many tournaments in which the Northern California clubs compete against each other. The other clubs are in Oakland, San Francisco, Palo Alto, San Jose and Santa Cruz, says Stu Shoemaker, 86, public relations officer and member of the Sunnyvale club.
"It's just a lot of fun because we get a lot of people out here," he says. "I used to alley bowl when I was in the Navy, but those balls are 16 pounds and it is much easier to manage these bowls, which are 4 pounds."
The game begins when a player throws out a small white ball called a "jack" to the opposite side of the green. The object of the game is to get as many of your team's bowls (or balls) closer to the Jack than your opponent. The green is close-cut grass measuring 120 feet in each direction, and eight games can be played on the Sunnyvale green at one time.
"Whoever gets closest to the jack gets a point and we often use a measuring tape or a compass to find out which ball is the closest," Shoemaker says. "It has been so close in tournaments that we slid a dollar bill in between the balls to tell who's closest."
Mary Balsama, 90, has been a member since the club formed in 1978. Close to half of the members are women.
"I like the camaraderie and companionship," says Bernice York, a Cupertino resident who used to work in the children's room of the Sunnyvale library. "I also really like the competition and playing outdoors."
Norman and Irene Nakano are a husband and wife who have played in the club for five years. Norman played eight years ago and quit to pursue table tennis and pool at the Sunnyvale Senior Center but came back to lawn bowling because he enjoys it and likes traveling to various places for tournaments, he says.
Seb Sacco takes his turn at lawn bowling. Sacco has been playing for the past 18 years and tries to get out to the green at least four times a week.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Joe Shepherd, the vice president of the club, has traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Spain, England and Scotland to play the game.
"I have been here since 1975, and I wouldn't join another club," Shepherd says. "Everyone is so friendly and more competitive than anyplace else."
On July 8, 1999, three members of the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club won the gold medal in the San Jose Senior Games, Shoemaker says. Al Camps, Gwen Houston and Shoemaker competed against other Northern California teams. The Sunnyvale club is also a "popular stop" for lawn bowling visitors from Scotland, Australia and Israel, Shoemaker says.
The sport requires some exercise because players constantly walk to each side of green, or "ends." A game lasts approximately two hours and consists of a certain number of "ends," or a delivery of all the balls from one side of the green to the other.
"It is exercise because there is walking and bending like in calisthenics," says Seb Sacco, an 18-year veteran of the club.
There are usually an equal number of players on each team, with either three against three or four against four. If there is an odd number of people, everyone plays "cut throat," or a one-on-one game against one another, Sacco says.
Some members of the club are social players, while others compete in local tournaments, and a few travel worldwide. While most of the members of the Sunnyvale club are retired, it's a myth that the sport is for seniors. According to Shepherd, a couple of 9-year-old boys from Florida and Santa Cruz have played extremely well in tournaments.
Lawn bowling is different from its Italian counterpart, bocci because the balls are shaped differently. While a bocci ball is perfectly round, a lawn bowl is contoured so it won't roll in a straight line, and has a heavier weight on one side that allows it to curve and fall on the heavier side. Lawn bowls have more "finesse," Shepherd says.
"It's an easy game; we just make it hard," he adds.
For more information about the Sunnyvale Lawn Bowls Club or for instruction, call Stu Shoemaker at 408.735.7722.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
