Rendering above courtesy of the Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club
All the way back in March, SDM reported on the fact that the Fort Wayne Curling Club was bringing its A-game to promote a new sport: Lawn bowls.
Lawn bowls (Note: Don’t call it lawn bowling), which uses the skills found in curling, but transfers them to grass rather than ice, is a great use of the offseason as well as a way to engage the community.
As a review, in lawn bowls, players have to roll a weighted ball (also known as a biased ball) along the grass toward a target ball, known as a jack. The biased balls, called “bowls,” follow a curved path when rolled, similar to way a curling stone moves.
Lawn bowls is contested on a venue known as a bowling green. That green is being built on the grounds of the Fort Wayne Curling Club, directly across from the Parkview SportOne Ice House.
For those who want the specifics, a bowling green is a roughly 120’ x 120’, extremely flat grass area surfaced in short bentgrass (that’s a cool season grass that spreads readily). Because the grass is kept very short (cut to just 3/16”), it has been compared to the surface of a golf green or a grass tennis court.
And, said Craig Fischer, president and co-founder of the Fort Wayne Curling Club, the curling club long had an unused grassy area behind its facility, although “we did not think it was big enough for a standard bowling green. Last summer, he noted, he and his wife measured the area and were “really surprised to find that we had the space.”
Building a bowling green, however, is not as easy as just using any grass area. Strict tolerances regarding slope have to be taken into consideration. Additionally, the green needs to be built to drain quickly and to be playable soon after a rain event. This means any area to be used must first be excavated and rebuilt with a stone layer to facilitate drainage and a sand cap to generate strong root growth.
Fundraising effort, to cover the cost of construction of the green, began. At the time of the previous check-in, the club had already raised nearly 50 percent of the anticipated funds.
Recently, the Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club announced it had been awarded a capital grant of $75,000 from the Indiana Sports Corp. and that this, combined with a total of $150,000 already raised, provides the club with sufficient funds to commence construction.
The goal, once ground is broken, is to complete construction of the green by mid-September in order to allow the grass seed to be planted in the fall. This will maximize root growth before winter hits.
And if all goes well, the club’s most recent email notes, “it will allow us to be up and running as early as possible next summer.”
Lawn bowls, often shortened to simply bowls, is popular in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and other Commonwealth nations. The sport dates back to at least the 13th century in England and has additional roots in games played in ancient Greece and Egypt. It is contested either in teams or one on one.
Once the green is completed, the Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club will offer weekly leagues, "Try Bowls" sessions for community members, corporate and private events, as well as programs for individuals with disabilities and senior citizens. The green will also accommodate croquet.
“We have had a good amount of interest,” said Fischer. “It’s still a foreign concept to a lot of people.”
Bowls, like curling, lends itself to adaptive sports use, both for individuals in wheelchairs and those with other challenges as well. As a bonus, it will fill the time between the winter sports season with another means of recreation, as well as revenue generation.
“The addition of lawn bowls will provide the Fort Wayne community with an excellent spring and summer activity for families and people of all ages and abilities,” said Fischer. “We are committed to making lawn bowls accessible to everyone, just as we have done with curling, and we are excited to extend our adaptive programs year-round. We also anticipate strong engagement with families and individuals of all ages. While it is sometimes viewed as a retirement sport, it is also quite popular among younger people. We aim to create a cool, relaxing environment where people can enjoy a summer evening in Fort Wayne with the refreshment of their choice.”
The Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club will operate as a division of the Fort Wayne Curling Club, offering lawn bowls from April through September each year, while curling will continue from September through April.
Ultimately, once its new venue is in place, it will be used as a tool to attract other lawn bowls events. Fort Wayne Curling Club already has extensive experience hosting bonspiels and other curling events and expects to use this knowledge to help its lawn bowls events run smoothly.
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