I'm 17 years old. Here's how playing bowls has changed my life

Most people associate bowls with pensioners – but I’m not exaggerating when I say at age 17 it’s changed my life.  

I’ve tried football, tennis, badminton – and bowls is up there with them as a sport. You have to really concentrate, anyone can do it and it’s great fun. 

I play flat green bowling, which has a different grass surface to crown green bowling. Otherwise it’s the same. With one foot on a plastic mat, you roll your bowl across the grass green to see who can get nearest the jack, a smaller white ball. Everyone gets three chances to bowl and whoever’s nearest the jack after that wins. The trick is to get nearest and knock someone else’s ball away. 

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My first experience with bowls was walking past the People’s Park pavilion and lawn in Grimsby where I live and seeing a lot of old people playing together. I definitely wasn’t getting involved in that! 

Then I joined the Young People’s Development Group (YPDG), which is helping build a youth club in Grimsby. We meet regularly to make sure young voices are heard in the development of Horizon Youth Zone. 

Three years ago one of the youth workers suggested we try bowling and I realised how much fun it could be. I even find myself playing against those older people. 

It’s a sport that is easy enough for anyone, but that turns very competitive very quickly. The membership of the bowls club is just £1. We play every Tuesday. We wear our normal clothes, not the all-white that the pensioners wear. 

As well as being fun, it lets you get out in the fresh air and chat to each other as you play. It’s a great confidence builder – even though I’m probably the worst in the league, I love those moments where you can triumph and destroy someone’s ego! 

Talking of which, I challenged Heather, 67, to a game to find out what she thought of teenagers playing. 

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In a break from bowling some mean right-handed balls within inches of the jack, she told me: “It’s great to see younger people take it up because they have more energy than us. Everybody thinks it’s an older person’s sport – but kids do enjoy it. Even my granddaughter. She’s only eight, but she’s been a couple of times and really liked it. 

“My husband’s older than me and it felt like something gentle we could do together and I love getting out in the fresh air. I’m not such a good bowler that I could crush anyone’s ego.” 

That’s a good job, because I beat Heather… 

Bowls was just one of the activities our YPDG got involved in, but it’s quickly become a favourite of the whole group. And we’re spreading the word wide – when we went to America on an exchange to spend time with other people our age, we introduced it to them and they loved it too.  

Without bowls, I wouldn’t be the same person I am today. You can socialise and make friends as you play, and when you win it feels amazing. It has helped me grow in confidence because we’re teaching younger members of the group how to play. 

I asked my youth worker Izzy – who was one of the first members of our YPDG until she was inspired to start a career in youth work – what she thinks it is about bowls that connects with people: 

“The reason we chose bowls was that we met a really lovely group that play bowls on a Tuesday and we just wanted to come and join them and simply have a laugh. 

“Little did we know, we’d really enjoy it and all get super, super competitive – and now we’ve got a bowls league! 

“Sometimes we play other youth groups around Grimsby who’ve got into bowls as well. 

“To be honest, at the start they didn’t really enjoy it – they all looked at us like we were aliens for asking them to play. But once they got involved and they got the element of competitiveness, they really started to enjoy it. 

“It’s a way for them to come together after school, after college, decompress and have a laugh. 

“The impact has been phenomenal – I’ve seen them go from being really shy at the start to helping any new starters we’ve got by showing them the basics and telling them the rules. 

“I never knew that they enjoyed it so much! But I’m glad they do.” 

Neil, who runs the bowling club, was at one time one of the top bowls trainers in the country. He introduced our YPDG to bowls to begin with. He told me: 

“I was looking for an activity that everyone can do and is inclusive – I know it sounds unlikely, but everyone got into it and really loved it. It’s fantastic to see the younger generation play against the older people on the field. The average bowler is about 50 years older than you guys, so it’s brilliant to see something you can share.” 

Bowling is for all ages. In my hometown of Grimsby, it’s bringing generations together. I love my bowling club and I intend to keep bowling as long as I can. I’d tell anyone who was interested to just try it and find out how underrated it is – it can change your life like it did mine. 

Read more about Horizon Youth Zone.

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