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44 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2008 Celebrating 100 years of life in the grass lanes By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF R on Robson sits in the shade on the bench outside the long, green onestorey building on King Street and watches Bob Chalmers push the mower around the outer edges of the squarish lawn in front of him. Though the property is bordered by large trees, there's little shade to escape from the 27-degree heat while cutting the grass, so the members of the grounds crew take their turns. Charles Buddell emerges from the door to Robson's right with a freshly-made pitcher of lemonade and begins filling the Styrofoam cups that he has brought with him. What's the ideal height for the grass? "I don't know what it is. It's that," Buddell says, pointing at the grass two feet away. "Whatever that is." "Three-sixteenths of an inch," Robson says without hesitation. He should know. At 91, Robson is the oldest member of the Oakville Lawn Bowling Club to still roll the bowls every week. He joined the club in the late 1950s when some men at a local bar, The Country Club ("You go up to Navy Street, take a right and it was the first building," Robson explains. "I think it's a real estate office now."), told him to come down to the club and give it a try. Now Robson, Buddell, Chalmers and Mike Byford are the guardians of green, the four men entrusted with caring for the 12,960-square-foot patch of grass where the men and women of Oakville have been bowling for the last century. Celebration weekend The club will mark its 100th anniversary this weekend with a Centennial Bowling Tournament tomorrow (Saturday). The following day, it will hold Celebration Day, with members of other clubs coming in for games and skills competitions. The mayor, town crier and officials of lawn bowling organizations will make presentations beginning at 2 p.m. Supporters of a lawn bowling club first approached the town in April 1908. The town agreed to lease a parcel of vacant land that had once been used as livestock pens during the annual fair. Club members levelled the ground, laid sod and built a small clubhouse. It opened for play on July 6, 1908 with a game between rinks skipped by club president E.T. Lightbourn, who was also president of the Ontario association, and vice-president Alan Chisholm, who scored a 35-30 victory. The lawn bowling club not only began play long before most of Oakville's current sports clubs, but it has also continued in the same location since that first game. The male members of the club began interclub play in 1953 and the ladies followed suit in 1961, with the club winning its first league championship in 1964. The town took over the clubhouse (it still owns the property and leases it to the club for a nominal fee) in 1978, adding a kitchen and washroom, though the entire building would be reconstructed, opening again in 1991. In 2000, an equally important renovation would take place as the green was extended to 120 feet by 108 feet, the first increase in size since the original green was doubled in size in 1911. "There's a lot of walking up and down the green and, before you know it, you've walked a couple of kilometers," says Irene Iten, the club's current president. Iten's husband, Ted, adds, "I know it doesn't appeal to younger people but if you want to be active, it's a very important institution. It's very important to the town." The club currently has 199 playing members who pay a $100 membership for the year, as well as four life members ("Freeloaders like him," Buddell says with a laugh as he points to Robson) and 30 associate or social members. The club has had numerous provincial champions. But when the question of the best bowler among the greenskeepers is posed, all fingers are pointed at Robson. "The old master," Chalmers says of the former Ontario champ. "He's got radar built into his bowls." But it's more than the game that has kept Robson around for almost 50 years. "It's a good social game," Buddell says, "and as long as you can bend your back and your knees, you can play a long, long time. You can be very competitive if you want to get into that circle, but most bowlers are social bowlers." And the added responsibility of caring for the green doesn't dampen Buddell's love of the game one bit. If anything, it makes him appreciate it even more. "It's a labour of love for the four of us," he says, looking out over the green as the sprinklers pulse water over the freshly cut grass. "It's nice being out in the fresh air and there's a tremendous sense of satisfaction when you cut the grass and it looks as good as it does." With that type of care, the greens are in good hands as they enter their second century. LABOUR OF LOVE: Ron Robson pushes the mower over the greens at the Oakville Lawn Bowling Club. Robson, 91, is the oldest member to still roll the bowls every week at the club, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary season. CHRIS KORNACKI / OAKVILLE BEAVER Giving lawn bowling a shot "Have you ever tried it?" asks Charles Buddell. When the answer is no, Buddell jumps into action. "Well you can't write about it if you haven't tried it," he says. And with that he's off to the storage shed to retrieve some bowls, a jack and a mat. After explaining the bowl -- one side is weighted to make it travel in a curved path -- Buddell demonstrates the proper release, so as to avoid creating divots, which is very important to him considering he's one of the people charged with caring for the green. Buddell then positions the jack at the far end of the green and throws down the mat. I'm ready to make my lawn bowling debut. I release the bowl -- no divot, that's a good start -- and it begins its long, arcing path to the jack some 100 feet away. At first I think it's not going to make it halfway there. But it keeps rolling. And rolling. And rolling. Finally it clunks into the gutter and the end of the green. "At the beginning of the season we devote a full week to training new bowlers," Buddell says, "and usually once a month we have a training class of some description on some aspect of the game." Is he trying to tell me something? Attempt number two is looking better and curls about seven feet wide of the jack. Number three is a little closer. Then Buddell starts rolling. His bowls all seem to be going long and I start thinking, `Hey, maybe I'm not half bad at this." And then he explains. Setting up some longer bowls will pay off if the jack is hit and knocked backwards (though this doesn't seem like the wisest strategy against me). "It's a harder more skillful game than curl See Jack page 46 www.icesports.com 905-845-6989