Sports
Locals Learn how to Bowl the Lawn
Each week residents spend days on the green to master the jack, wick and throw.
The concept seems simple enough. Aim the ball. Roll it across the field. Get it closest to the small white ball called a "jack." In essence, lawn bowling holds the same objective of any other sport — whoever shoots closest to the target wins. But this objective is where the simplicity ends.
The Hermosa Beach Lawn Bowling Club practices the sport, perfecting skill and technical prowess, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Dedicated residents bowl for two hours each game.
"Bowls is very low impact but it gets people outdoors, moving around quite a bit and even allows for friendly competition to take place," said Hermosa Beach lawn bowler and British import Keith Marshall at a practice Thursday.
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The game is played using 4-pound elliptical-shaped balls called bowls. The bowls have a built-in bias that causes them to curve in one direction. How much the ball turns depends on many variables: the weight of the throw or how fast you roll it, where you aim, the condition of the green, and weather conditions.
Yes, this all takes some serious getting used to. On multiple occasions the ball can roll towards a target, look promising, and then quickly turn in the completely wrong direction and wind up yards away from the jack.
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And if aiming a weighted ball on a sloping green towards a tiny target 100 feet away wasn't quite hard enough, your competition is allowed at any point to hit your ball with their throw. This is known as a wick, a strategic move used to either knock the other team out of the scoring zone or to move a teammate's ball closer to the jack.
When all players have finished rolling, the bowl closest to the jack scores the point, according to the United States Lawn Bowling Association. Subsequent bowls of the same team, which are closer to the jack than the opponent, also score points. When the opponent's bowl gets closer to the jack, scoring stops for that round. Each game is played to a predetermined number of points or rounds.
"You never truly master this game," said Manhattan Beach resident Gil Gillespie. "You just hope you get a little better each time."
As each athlete strives to improve, amity among players remains a highlight of this game. Residents practiced some good-natured ribbing and even some trash talking Thursday, but it was all done in a very humorous and light-hearted manner.
For the majority of the match, bowlers cheered on both their competition and teammates alike. Camaraderie abounds in the game of lawn bowling.
Residents have been playing this precision-focused game since the local club was founded in 1936. Mayor John Clark installed a green field on city property at the time, which attracted more than 150 bowlers. Today, bowlers can practice on the field next to the Clark Building on Valley Drive.
