Local club ready to roll
With upgrades complete, it’s back to bowling
The bowls are set to roll after repairs to the local lawn bowling club’s green wrapped up Monday afternoon.
After being thrown a curve ball, the Cobequid Lawn Bowl Club is preparing for a late season opening with a brand new green, and hopes to welcome players back later this week.
Built in 2012, the Douglas Street Recreation Centre green began to deteriorate after a year of use and degraded more each year, causing issues with players and prevented the club from holding certain events.
“Last year, we were not allowed to host any events that led to a national event until we
got our green fixed,” said Helen Brightman, president of the club.
“There was no predictability to your bowl when you threw it. People from the other clubs who have been here, bowled and saw for themselves how bad it was, they didn’t want to come back. It hurt.”
Repairs to the green’s subsurface began in May, cutting the club’s season from the normal six months to less than four.
“We knew we had to do something about the green this year,” said Gregg Dill, marketing director for the club.
“The idea was to hopefully get it done in May and play in June. This goal was optimistic to start with, but we ran into some unexpected difficulties and eventually figured we needed a professional to fly in from Scotland.”
Truro town council approached the club, and offered to set aside $30,000 to repave the subsurface, giving the green a necessary facelift.
After repaving, the green’s carpet had to be reinstalled, but the size and weight caused problems for the club.
Exhausting all other options, they reached out to specialist company, Greengauge, in Scotland, who flew in a specialist to re-stitch and reset the carpet.
The club hopes the new green will allow them to add new members, and they invite bowlers of all ages.
“There is a stigmatism attached to the sport that it’s an old person sport, but across Canada, that is not the case,” said Brightman.
“In Ontario there’s as many if not more young people lawn bowling than adults. We want to see younger people get involved, because there is a future in lawn bowling for kids.”