Lawn Bowling is a popular pastime all over the UK, especially with seniors, but also with the young. It’s firmly rooted in our history, with the story of Sir Francis Drake, one of England’s biggest heroes, insisting on finishing his game of bowls before sailing out to destroy King Philips Armada and save the country from Spanish invasion.
Dornoch, like almost every town or village in the Scottish Highlands has a Bowling Club.
Lawn Bowling looks fairly relaxed – certainly nobody breaks into a sweat – but can competitive too, particularly when the big matches come around. These matches are visits from other clubs where teams play against each other. For big matches everybody dresses in their “white’s” and takes the game seriously. The Dornoch bowling green will be full, and teams march from one side to the other shouting instructions and encouragement to their colleagues.
At other times a few bowlers will get together for an evenings genteel entertainment, a little fun and a bit of a laugh.
They even play in the rain, wearing white plastic jackets, with hoods – which can seem a little crazy to anybody not captivated by rolling big wooden balls across 50 yards of grass, knocking the closest man out of position.
Maybe that’s the attraction? One will work awful hard getting a bowl into position and then laugh and congratulate another who knocks him out of place. Just great fun, but with real skill and experience involved.
As long as there isn’t a big match on, visitors are welcome at the Dornoch Bowls Club, to give the game a try, or even join in and get some tuition on the side.
The video shows one of those big match days at Dornoch with the teams dressed up and ready to compete. Luckily the weather was fabulous so the whole occasion could be enjoyed by everybody, including that strange guy with the camera.
Do you have Highlands experiences you can share with our readers? Please add your comments, suggestions and memories in the Comments box. The more news and views the better!
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Comments on this entry are closed.