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Bowling Right Along

Tampa Tribune staff photo/Greg Fight

Helga Wright lines up her shot as she bowls with embers of the Sun City Center Lawn Bowling Club.

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By ELAINE MARKOWITZ Tribune correspondent

Published: December 5, 2007

SUN CITY CENTER - Some 30 men and women in casual garb and sunglasses gathered on a large swath of manicured lawn in Sun City Center one recent morning. The daily rounds of lawn bowling were about to begin.

Each morning dozens of bowlers team up on the blanket of green dotted with black balls the size of grapefruits. Almost 300 residents of Sun City Center and Kings Point have made this their sport of choice.

For most, enthusiasm for this low-key game is immediate.

Club President Joe Coleman, a former high school physical education teacher and coach, claimed he was an avid golfer until a buddy in his native New Jersey asked him to try lawn bowling.

"After I tried it once I was hooked," he said.

Coleman's wife, Monica, 67, began lawn bowling at age 58, while living in Pinehurst, N.C. She watched a game and was fascinated, she said.

"I wanted to try this game I had never heard of before," she said, "and I loved it at once." She took a clinic offered by Coleman, her future husband, and has been playing ever since.

"We came here in 2005 for the warmth," she said, "but we had to go somewhere Joe and I could do lawn bowling."

Bowlers turn to the greens for a host of reasons, one being the flexibility of the players.

For those who are casual bowlers, the morning camaraderie is a lure, but a competitive spirit also lurks amidst the crowd.

"You get out of it what you want," said Dave Burbery, the retired director of a large manufacturing company in his native Leicestershire, England.

"If you have been competitive all your life you aspire to win here," he said. "I'd like to represent this county in the state competition."

Competitive bowlers take advantage of the "Tuesday League," held each Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m.

Local, state and national matches draw the best from various clubs. The largest competition is the U.S. Open, which was hosted by the Sun City Center club in November. The event, open to international players, included bowlers from South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Burbery, 74, said the game meets needs beyond competition, mainly camaraderie and a level of exercise that is less demanding on older legs.

"I've played every sport there is," he said. Those include soccer, cricket, tennis and golf, which he still plays.

Lawn bowling, his current favorite, is popular in England, he said. Public parks have greens and competitive games are carried on television.

The relatively simple rules of the game also are an inducement for many.

Teams, organized according to skill level, consist of two, three or four people on a side. Players, in turn, stand on a small mat and aim the ball at a jack, a small white ball resembling a cue ball in pool. The player who consistently comes closest to the jack wins. Markers on the field set the parameters of each game, since three games generally take place at a time.

Monica Coleman is an avid bowler, but she also loves the camaraderie of fellow players.

"I run the social part of the club," she said. "Everyone likes that, even the competitors."

Coleman said 82 people are signed up for the holiday party on Sunday.

"We bowl first and then have the party," she said.

She organizes fundraisers as well.

"Five hundred people attended a spaghetti dinner in early November," she said. "We ran it with 42 volunteers from the club."

The club operates out of a large facility, the Eberhardt building and grounds, which the players use as a clubhouse with locker rooms, a dining room and office. The only thing they seem to lack now, Joe Coleman said, is water.

"We're trying to raise money for a well," he said. "We share our water with the golf courses and there is currently a water shortage."

Bowling enthusiasts expressed a common concern: lack of youth in lawn bowling.

"I'd like to get young people involved," said Coleman, who teaches monthly clinics to adults. Sun City Center, though, doesn't cater to the young.

"It's the same elsewhere," Burbery said. "On the whole I think the average age is 65, even in England."

A lack of public greens increases the difficulty. Sarasota, Port Charlotte, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Mount Dora and Lakeland have lawn bowling greens, but in the South Shore area Sun City Center stands alone.

Burbery said the problem is larger than even lawn bowling.

"The numbers are dwindling in sports," he said, adding that a gradual erosion is taking place.

"People tend to watch sports rather than play," he said. "Even in the U.K."

The lawn bowlers of Sun City Center meet each weekday from 9:30 to 11 a.m. The greens are off North Pebble Beach Boulevard, behind the Eberhardt building.

HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED

In this sport, teams are organized by skill level, and consist of two, three or four people. Players, in turn, stand on a mat and aim the ball at a jack, a small white ball resembling a cue ball in pool. The player who consistently comes closest to the jack wins.

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