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It was a lovely September day. The Pointe-Claire Lawn Bowling Club (PCLBC) had just finished hosting the Atlantic Bowls, a premier lawn bowling competition held from September 10th to September 13th, involving 80 bowlers from Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Quebec won the series.

Shortly after the Atlantic Bowls, The West Island Men’s Shed (WIMS) accepted an invitation to be introduced to the sport of lawn bowling. Bill, Peter, Sam, Will, and Mark met with Marc Phillips, Peter Freeman, Nathalie Cyr, and Anna Marie Marx from the PCLBC to learn more about the sport.

We were complete neophytes to the sport. Marc Phillips, a National Lawn Bowling Umpire and sports historian, took us through a brief history as well as an overview of the sport’s equipment and setup, including an explanation of the natural curves of the “out-of-balance” lawn bowling “bowl.” The bowl has a “running surface” but is not “round,” and it is weighted more on one side than the other, giving it the ability to “curl” to the right or the left depending on how you hold and deliver it. The “target” is a white ball called the “jack,” which is the size of a billiard ball.

Once all the bowls are delivered, only those of the team closest to the jack count as points. The sport is played on a “green,” a 36-metre stretch of grass as pristine as the putting greens at the Masters golf course (the green had just been aerated when we played, so it was a little unforgiving — that’s the excuse I will use anyway). The green, which is square, is then divided into 8 “rinks” on which the various teams compete.

Marc and Peter gave us guidance on delivering the bowl, showing us the effects of the green’s terrain and the ball’s (oops...the bowl’s) bias. The bias is what gives the bowl the ability to curl into sneaky places on the rink.

After a few trial ends (think “curling on grass”), and in true Canadian fashion, a competition broke out. We selected two three-man teams, with the first made up of Bill as skip, Sam as vice-skip, and Mark as lead vs. Peter Freeman acting as skip and PCLBC ringer, our own Peter as vice-skip, and Will playing lead.

It was a see-saw battle through six ends, and the competition got heated (mostly because the sun was out). Peter Freeman’s team won the match.

We retired to the clubhouse, where the West Island Men’s Shed was extended hospitality by the Pointe-Claire Lawn Bowling Club teams that had been playing alongside us. The coffee, sodas, snacks, and conversations went on for an hour or so — an indication of how welcoming the club members were to new players. We have been invited back, and I am excited to be organizing our next outing.

The Pointe-Claire Lawn Bowling Club will end its 2026 season on October 24th. For more information about the club, please visit their website at www.pointeclairebowls.com. If lawn bowling interests you, consider attending one of the club’s open houses next May. There is no charge, and the club provides the bowls.