Blind bowling ‘not as difficult as it looks’
Go into your kitchen and close your eyes. See if you can find the cutlery drawer or place your hand on the jug.
You can’t see them but you know where they are, or where they should be, right?
Gael Hambrook uses the analogy to describe how she plays bowls at Titahi Bay Indoor Bowling Club every Friday – she can’t see the balls but she has an idea where they’ll be.
The Porirua woman is blind – she has 3 per cent vision and is expected to lose even that – but she still knows where her target is.
Hambrook and her visionimpaired team-mates use a combination of experience and help from sighted people to play the game.
The mat they bowl on has a metal clip bowlers use to orientate themselves before letting the white ball – or kitty – roll out onto the ‘‘green.’’
The object of the game is to bowl bigger balls as close as possible to the kitty – not easy when you can’t see it.
Sighted volunteers will tell the blind sportspeople where the kitty is and then it’s up to them to win.
Hambrook is used to people’s reactions when they find out she’s a bowler.
‘‘They’re always surprised and want to know how I can see the balls but you don’t have to see them. It’s not as hard as it looks.’’
She hasn’t always been blind. Her condition is degenerative and, although she fears losing the tiny amount of vision she has left, she’s not one to feel sorry for herself.
‘‘I used to get a bit angry but you just have to get off your bottom and do things.’’
Sighted people aren’t so good at dealing with blind people, so the camaraderie of the bowling group is important, she said.
‘‘I hope people might have this story read to them and come along and join in.’’
Anil Jina shares both Hambrook’s degenerative condition and her outlook on life.
Bowling for the past four years, he said it was a challenge to learn how to bowl when he could only see a few feet in front of him.
‘‘I can see the ball leave my hand but then it disappears.’’
Members don’t have to be totally blind to join in with the weekly group, partially-sighted people are more than welcome, he said.
‘‘You don’t have to be scared, we’re pretty friendly and there’s always morning tea.’’