"Crack a Jack" - An Evening of Crown Green Bowling

The first Club “away evening” of the Rotary year was held at Wickersley Bowling Club on Thursday 27th July 2017 when over 20 of us gathered to find out how to play the game of bowls. We were given a very warm welcome by the Bowling Club members followed by expert coaching about the basics. Within a few minutes we were devising ways of exploiting the bias of the woods by finger pegging or thumb pegging. Despite a very orderly and well-behaved start of bowling from one end of the green to the other, the play descended into a three-dimensional version of Battleships with jacks and bowls being clouted all over the grass and ending up in the Ditch which surrounded the green. Needless to say, this resulted in some players coming to the end of their “End” and gathering up the bowls of others still in play. Thankfully the weather was very pleasant and the time passed quickly. Although no winners were announced at the end of the game, there were certainly no losers and there was a great atmosphere. The evening finished off with an enjoyable meal at Elif’s in The Tanyard, Wickersley. This was a very successful and engaging evening – well done Andrew for organising the event but also for a cunning way of divvy-ing up the bill.

PS Following this game of bowls, it might be of interest to ask for a talk (or four) about how Sir Francis Drake finished off his game of bowls before finishing off the Armada.

Paul G Daniels. 1st August 2017