Finally Getting on the Green: Why a Day at the Bowls England National Championships Made Me Appreciate Bowls Even More

After years visiting bowls clubs, installing screens and building Grassroot Media’s bowls network, there was 1 fairly obvious gap in my knowledge: I had never actually played bowls.

I have spent a lot of time in bowls clubs over the last few years.

I have visited them, put posters up in them, installed digital screens in them, spoken to committees, met members and watched the Grassroot Media bowls network grow into a really important part of what we do.

There was just 1 fairly obvious thing missing.

I had never actually played bowls.

That finally changed this week when I was lucky enough to be invited, along with other guests of the Silver Marketing Association, to the Bowls England National Championships in Leamington Spa.

And after finally getting onto the green myself, I think I understand the appeal of the sport even more.

Worth the journey

Getting there from the Costa del Colchester was not particularly straightforward.

By the time I got home, I had managed a fairly ridiculous 9 trains across the day getting to and from Leamington Spa.

But it was absolutely worth it.

From the moment we arrived, the whole day had a really friendly and relaxed atmosphere. There was obviously some seriously high-level bowls taking place, with spectators there to watch some of the best players in the sport compete.

But what struck me just as much was everything happening around the competition: people chatting, friends meeting up, players and spectators mixing, people having food and drinks together, lots of laughter and lots of conversation.

And, importantly, nobody seemed to be in a tremendous hurry to be somewhere else.

Then I actually had a go

As part of the day, we got the opportunity to try bowls ourselves.

And I loved it.

It is immediately accessible enough that you can have a go and enjoy yourself, but within about 30 seconds you also realise there is a huge amount of skill involved.

Weight. Line. Reading the green. Understanding the bias. Thinking several shots ahead.

And, of course, the apparently very simple task of getting your bowl somewhere near the jack, which turns out not to be nearly as simple as it looks.

I even managed to send a few decent ones down, although I suspect my bowls career may have peaked on day 1.

That combination of competition and relaxation was probably the thing I liked most. You are concentrating and trying to play well, but you are also chatting, laughing and spending time with other people.

It is all built into the game.

I can see why people love it

That probably sounds obvious to anyone who already plays bowls. But experiencing it rather than simply visiting clubs gave me a different appreciation of why people keep coming back.

Bowls clubs are not just places where people turn up, play a game and leave. They are social communities.

Members often spend hours there. They know each other. They play together, compete together, volunteer together and socialise together.

For a lot of people, the clubhouse and everything around the game is every bit as important as what happens on the green.

That is something we have seen repeatedly while building the Grassroot Media bowls network, but it is much easier to understand when you experience a little bit of it yourself.

Which makes me feel rather lucky

Grassroot Media did not originally set out with some grand plan to build a national media network inside bowls clubs.

We rather stumbled across the opportunity.

We began with posters. Then came more clubs. Then digital screens. Then national advertisers started seeing the potential too.

And somewhere along the way we found ourselves working with a brilliant network of bowls clubs around the country.

Experiencing the sport properly made me feel even luckier that we did.

From an advertising point of view, these are unusual environments. People are relaxed. They are social. They spend proper time there. They return frequently. And they are surrounded by people with whom they share an interest and often years of friendships.

That does not mean people suddenly want to stare at advertising. Nobody does.

But it does mean advertisers have an opportunity to communicate with people in an environment which is very different from the noise and clutter of everyday media.

And when the advertising understands the audience and the setting, as we have seen with some of the campaigns running through our bowls network, it can fit surprisingly naturally into that environment.

More importantly, they are great clubs

It is easy for us to talk commercially about audiences, dwell time, campaign results and media opportunities.

Days like this are a useful reminder that behind all of those numbers are actual clubs and actual people.

And the people we met in Leamington could not have been nicer.

That includes the team at the Silver Marketing Association, who kindly hosted us for the day, everyone at Bowls England, our fellow guests, the spectators we spoke to and even the players who were generous enough with their time despite being there to compete at the highest level.

Thank you to everyone who made us feel so welcome.

It was a brilliant day.

Even the 9 trains were worth it.

And I suspect it will not be the last time I pick up a bowl.

Although next time I might drive.