Lawn bowls popularity sliding down hill
Mon 02 April 2007
Lauren Kesby, Journalism
Bowls Australia’s plan to make the dying sport of lawn bowls more appealing to younger generations is failing with a decrease in players of all ages.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released figures for 2006 that show a significant decrease in the number of people playing bowls. Despite efforts to make lawn bowls more appealing, it has experienced a decrease of over 100,000 players since 1999.
Even with the decrease in players, the ABS figures show bowls is one of the top five organised activities in Australia along with golf, tennis, netball and aerobics/fitness.
Bowls Australia initiated a strategic plan for 2005 to 2008 which aims to, among other things, “refresh the image, brand and offering of bowls to increase the contemporary appeal of the sport to mainstream Australia including new participants, supporters and the media.”
The strategic plan aims to increase the public profiles of bowl’s leading athletes, improve marketability and provide more entertaining live television broadcasts.
Bowls Australia launched the ‘get on the green’ campaign intended to increase participation in bowls for 18 to 44-year-olds. The strategic plan hopes to use the campaign as the primary national marketing tool.
The ‘get on the green’ campaign “…target is good. The problem is they’re (18 to 44-year-olds) all workers and we don’t play enough bight bowls,” Brian Chapman, the Caboolture Bowls District President and Glasshouse Country Bowls Club’s Men’s Games Director, said.
The strategic plan is not working “because they (Bowls Australia) didn’t come down far enough,” Mr Chapman said.
“The young ones are not coming in. The older ones are giving the game away.”
Mr Chapman is not worried about the decrease in players, “if you look at the precious statistics then you’ll notice the numbers will go down and then they’ll come back up again.”
Lawn bowls is still popular with other Glasshouse Country Bowls Club members Bobby Coxon, Colin Allen and Dina Vandermeer.
“It’s very competitive now… There’s money involved nowadays when there never was,” Mr Coxon said.
“Any young bowler could make a future in it. Some people are making a living out of it now. If a young bowler shows a little promise all the big clubs take them.”
The Australian Open has the largest prize pool of all bowls competitions at $100, 000.
“Most of the good players are young. They are more aware of the conditions. It’s not an old person’s game. It’s a game old people can play,” Mr Allen said.
The national squad members range from 17-years-old to 47-years-old. The youngest player to join the women’s national squad Kelsey Cottrell, 17, started playing bowls when she was 12.
The Monash University Accident Research Centre website said, “health professionals recommend the sport to older people because it provides low impact, therapeutic exercise in a social and supportive environment.”
“I used to play eight days a week… it can take over your life if you’re not careful,” lawn bowls enthusiast Mrs Vandermeer said.
However, bowls is not just a sport for the older generations. There is junior bowls, blind bowls, and bowling in wheelchairs.
Image(s) designed by Lauren Kesby