June 22, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

The bowling green

by Sue Dremann

There aren't many sports that could put an invasion by the Spanish Armada on hold, but lawn bowling once did just that.

As the dreaded Spanish fleet was spotted amassing off the English coast in 1588, Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh were in the seventh round of an intense lawn bowling match. Drake refused to leave until he'd finished the game - then he went and defeated the Armada. The well-documented story is perhaps the most famous in a litany of lore surrounding lawn bowling, the so-called "Sport of Kings."

Once a game that enthralled kings and queens and robust men, lawn bowling is now mainly played by older folks, said Grace Griffiths, hospitality chair for the Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club, a 128-member club playing regularly at the lawn bowling green beside Gamble Garden on Embarcadero Road.

"As a kid in Britain, I'd say 'Let's go watch the old wrinklies bowl,' and now I've become one of them," Griffiths said, her eyes twinkling. A retired midwife, she comes out to the lawn bowling club every chance she gets, when she isn't playing tennis"

At the Palo Alto Lawn Bowls Club, members play the game in the tradition of Henry VIII, but under less trying circumstances than did Drake. Lawn bowling is easy to play but can be as challenging as chess, according to Palo Alto club president Terry Hogan.

Team members each take turns rolling flattened "bowls" the size of fattened Kaiser rolls on their edge. The bowls spin 120 feet down the green toward a "jack," or white ball, clicking as they knock into each other, jostling for the closest position. The goal is to get a bowl closest to the jack and win a point at the end of a round.

Shaved as close as a buzz cut and as smooth as velvet, the green, designed by John McLaren (who also designed Golden Gate Park), was created as a WPA project in 1933. The lawn adds character to the game, determining a bowl's speed: slower when moist, faster when dry, Hogan said.

The pace is leisurely, with plenty of time for conversation and developing friendships. There are plenty of social opportunities - "pizza night" on Wednesdays, baked in the clubhouse's full kitchen; and "Chicken Bowl" events, with barbecue often cooked by Hogan. Someone may even strike up a tune on the upright piano.

People come from all walks of life, from doctors to insurance salesmen, and range in age from 12 to 85. Although membership is desired, one doesn't have to be a member to play, Hogan said.

For tournaments, players don "dress whites." Tournaments span from the local level to national championships. There is even an annual match with Berkeley, patterned after the Stanford football "Big Game." The winning team takes home "The Meat Axe," a cleaver mounted on a plaque.

The Palo Alto club won it last year. The ax is prominently displayed in the clubhouse, where tournament boards hold five decades of bronze name plates, memorializing Palo Alto's winners of the "Sport of Kings."

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