Under and Over: Lowlands Bowling Club looking to attract younger players to lawn bowls
It is one of the oldest bowling clubs in the state, but this one institution is taking a novel approach to attract younger people to the game.
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Established way back in 1892, Newcastle’s Lowlands Bowling Club is the oldest active registered club in the lower Hunter region.
And while the majority of its members are in or around retirement age, this popular old bowlo in the inner-city suburb of Cooks Hill is looking to attract a very different demographic to its greens – teenagers.
On September 30 the club, affectionately known as ‘Lowies’, will host its ‘Under and Over’ bowls gala, which sees one player under the age of 18 team up with another over 18 for a day of pairs bowls.
It will be the second such event the club is held and is seen as a way of introducing a whole new group of people to the game.
“With any sport that you run I think you’ve got to look at where your members are going to come from,” said Lowlands’ vice-president and bowls co-ordinator Brett Gemmell.
“When we saw the success of what happened last time, we went to our membership – we have over 200 bowling members here at Lowlands – and said that surely there are people out there who have grandchildren or children who are teenagers, what a great opportunity to bring your grandkids down in the school holidays and have a game with nan and pop and see how they go from there.”
“It’s like a bonding thing that we’ve pushed for.”
The Under and Over event is by no means a one-off for Lowlands, which over the past couple of years has set up a dedicated drive to give young people an introduction to bowls.
“We’ve always had schools come along to Lowlands and use our facilities for school sport,” said Gemmell. “When you’d look out on the greens it was a shambles because typically the sports teacher had no idea about lawn bowls, so all they were trying to do was provide some level of discipline for the kids.”
Watching on as the teachers struggled, Gemmell had an idea: he asked around the club to see if anyone would be interested in giving the students a hand with some basic coaching.
“We got an overwhelming response from our members, with 65-70-year-olds saying, ‘Yeah, I’d love to spend some time with the kids,’” he said.
The club then formed a group called Youth Bowls at Lowies, and it now has eight coaches who volunteer their time to give school groups some tips. Two local high schools have been coming for weekly sport sessions, while another is set to start in the new term.
“The schools were happy, our volunteers were happy and our youth program got up and running,” said Gemmell.
And where the students were once a tad unruly, Gemmell has seen a marked difference.
“Once you get somebody with a bit of experience and a bit of know-how talking to kids, it’s sort of changed the game for them.
“I think we’ve noticed a significant difference in the kids who are turning up: they’re paying attention and realising that there’s much more to this game than they thought, so I can see an improvement there.”
And while the concentration of those students taking part is up, some are even coming back in their own time.
Indeed, last Saturday a slice of history was created when 16-year-old local high school student Tahlia Brown became the first junior in Lowlands’ long history to play in a club championship event. Playing mixed pairs, Brown and her partner even beat the current open pairs champions.
“Tahlia came through that program, so you’d have to say that the fruit is starting to bear,” said Gemmell.
“She’s the first one but we have a number of kids who come along on weekends for some tuition and I think that’s going to continue to grow.”
While some teenagers have jumped on board straight away, the club is content to play the long game.
“What we’re expecting might happen is that if we’re introducing some school-aged kids to bowls, they might not be interested in going into bowls now but it might be in the back of their mind when they hit their 40s or 50s,” said Gemmell.
“Some might flow on, like young Tahlia, and some might have a break and come back to it. But it just gives them that level of experience that they can use.”
On this matter, Gemmell points to one of his current bowls partners at the club.
“He played schoolboys bowls 45 years and didn’t play for 40 years, but then decided he’d take it back up because he did it in school. He went 40 years where he didn’t play and just came back to it.”
The push to get more young people familiar bowls comes at a rather poignant time. On Monday Lowlands will celebrate its 132nd birthday with a huge bowls gala.
“We’ll fill the greens,” said Gemmell. “Because of our green sizes we’re limited to 78 players and I think I’ve got 84 booked in, so I think it’s going to be a big day.”
And while numbers are very healthy at the moment, those at the club want to make sure that it is still going for another 132 years, pointing to a very unique selling point that bowls has over other sports.
“This Saturday Tahlia will be playing against the lady who would be known as the Matriarch of Lowlands bowls,” said Gemmell.
“She’s 82 years old, so you’ll have a 16-year-old playing against an 82-year-old and there aren’t many sports around where you can play competitively and have that range between the ages.”
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