Bowls is having a bit of a moment. Yes, that bowls – the game your grandpa loves to play with his mates on the immaculate club green, pint of ale in hand. Only, this is no longer your grandfather’s game. From Grimsby to Brighton, Wandsworth to Glasgow, bowls is attracting a younger, hipper crowd in it for community, fresh air, and a new sporting challenge.
It’s a national trend. Belmont Bowling Club in East Belfast offers live music and food. Polegrove Bowls Club in Bexhill, East Sussex has a thriving youth section and teenage championships, as do clubs in Lincolnshire. This new drive in popularity has seen bowls rise to the top on the international scene. At a time when sports like darts, badminton, and table tennis have been dropped from competitions like the Commonwealth Games, bowls is holding on, helping to raise the sport’s profile to new levels.
This weekend, bowls and Para bowls will be one of just 10 sports featured in the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. It’s a landmark achievement, and the first time in 90-plus years that the sport will be played indoors on specially designed rinks. If it goes well, officials at governing body World Bowls plan to petition for Olympic inclusion in 2030.
“Bowls has demonstrated remarkable longevity,” says Natalie Cunningham, director of sport in the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games. “The demand we’ve seen for Glasgow 2026 is testament to the enduring popularity of the sport. The incredibly high entry numbers have led to an additional day of competition being added to the programme.”
In other words, people literally can’t get enough.
Holly Farndell
Brett O’Riley, president of World Bowls, started playing with his parents when growing up in New Zealand. In his current role, he’s one of the people tasked with keeping bowls alive in the sporting imagination. “Bowls has been a big part of my life,” he says. “It’s how I met my wife. It’s taken me around the world, both as a sports journalist, and as a player.”
O’Riley says the Covid lockdowns “supercharged” the influx of new players. Ewan Lury “stumbled across” an open day for his local club in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, when he was 21 and spent his lockdown playing bowls. “The stereotypes with bowls are that it’s an old person’s game, it’s extremely boring and doesn’t take a lot of skill. I very quickly learned that none of these things were true,” he says.
