Growing up we had a bowling green out the back of our house in Epping and I have fond memories of it. I also remember when my sister Caroline had her 16th birthday party a bunch of her drunk mates road their push bikes all over the beloved green and hacked it up with a combination of wheelies and skid marks.
I started this series on "bowling clubs" when I was on a recent road trip around Victoria and then found out my grandpa actually started the South Oakleigh Club in Melbourne. After church every Sunday Jack and a few of his mates would get together in a shed and drink beer and one of them had a brainwave of starting their own bowling club. They all chipped in some money and bought some land and had it cleared and built one. There is still a room at the South Oakley club that is named after my grandpa "Jack May"
The saddest thing about these clubs is that they are a dying breed. Unfortunately the popularity of lawn bowls is down, due to an aging population and combined with the increased land value in Sydney the clubs are being sold off one by one. My plan is to try and capture as many of these as I can before they are extinct.
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