• Geoff Behrent writes:
At the latest count, there are roughly 1,1 million lawn bowlers worldwide playing bowls in 2022. The number of registered bowlers in South Africa is on the increase. The game is played in 50+ countries and is spread across five continents (sadly, not in Antarctica for some reason … ha ha!) There are more than 7 500 bowls clubs spread across the globe! Bowls always features prominently in the Commonwealth Games which this year will be held in the English Midlands (commonly called the Birmingham Games) from July 28. It’s really a sport to watch on TV so if you haven’t done so before, do yourself a favour this year and tune in to see it when the time comes! You’ll see teams from South Africa taking on the best the world has to offer.
In the last few years a new maker of bowls balls has come on board. Where once there were basically three manufacturers (Henselite, Taylor and Drakes Pride) a new brand (Aero) with innovative styling, sizing and colours, and colour combinations is currently making itself known in the bowls market. As I have stated before, no one in his right mind would invest in manufacturing equipment for anything at all if he knew his product couldn’t be sold! Having this new supplier clearly shows that there is at least a stable, if not growing, bowls market.
Let’s take a look at who is able to play the game. Well, first of all, any able-bodied person of any race, of either gender, and aged between 10 and 90+ years; I am not kidding! Furthermore, bowls is unique in one special way in that it especially caters for people living with a wide variety of disabilities.
Bowls is actually a wonderful game for people with disabilities or injuries that prevent them from playing any sport at all. For instance, there are thousands of sight-impaired (or totally blind), wheelchair-bound and prosthetic-limbed players who wouldn’t be able to play any sport whatsoever if it wasn’t for bowls. For the hard of hearing, the laws of the game allow two-way radios to be used to improve communication between players who are some distance apart. There is also simple equipment available that enables people to pick up their bowls without having to bend, and for those with serious back problems there is speciality gear that totally frees them up to enjoy the sport. I have been fortunate to try out this speciality equipment and found it to be truly amazing!
So, you doubters out there (and this sadly includes some rather deluded bowlers as well), judge the success of bowls by the number of people playing it and not by ill-informed hearsay.
Remember that bowls is a young person’s game that can be played well into old age, so why not put your pre-conceived ideas aside and come and see for yourself what bowls has to offer? I promise you, you will be pleasantly surprised …
If you need any further information, or should you want to start or re-start playing bowls (our greens are open for play on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoon from 13:00 while on Friday afternoons we play Last Man Standing – a fun variation of bowls that can be enjoyed by non-bowlers too – from about 16:00. Please contact Randfontein Town Bowling Club’s president, Vera Pretorius on 082 779 5177. The club also has a hall and fully licensed bar that comes with it, that can be hired at very reasonable rates; contact Vera for details.
