Why Gen Z are taking up bowling.
Grandad’s favourite sport has a new, young, cool following.
Its 7pm on a sunny Thursday. At this time I can usually be found at the pub with a gin and tonic in hand. But instead of a drink, I’m holding a lawn bowl. I’ve come to Peckham in South London, but not for the hip bars, restaurants and clubs the area is famous for. I’ve swapped nightclubs for a lawn bowls club because I’ve heard it’s the hot new after-work activity for my generation.
Think of lawn bowling and you will probably picture grey-haired men and women dressed in formal white clothes at a stuffy club. But there’s not a white hair in sight at Peckham Bowls, where the players are all about my age, 27. Forget padel, ping-pong and crazy golf – lawn bowls is becoming millennials’ new favourite sport.
Tonight is the first time I’ve stepped on a bowling rink since I played with my grandfather aged nine. Much has changed since then. For starters, there is no dress code and the crowd look fashionable. Welcome to bowls for a new generation: it’s cheap too, only £10 an hour
For the uninitiated, the aim of the game is to roll your bowl along the grass so that it lands as close as possible to the small white “jack”. I’m competing against my friend Georgie Procter, 27, who has played before with friends in Bristol, where the trend has taken hold. I’m surprised at how competitive we become, whooping and screaming.
The wave of young people breathing life into a dying game, couldn’t come soon enough – 85% of Bowls England members are over 55, and more than 100 clubs affiliated with the organization have disappeared in the past four years as their elderly members have died.
Peckham Bowls was left abandoned and derelict for eight years. That was until two 35-year-old friends who grew up together in nearby Lewisham took it over, converted the clubhouse into a bar and reopened its doors in March.
After I win the second round, my boyfriend texts saying he’s in Peckham too, heading to a night out at a nearby club – do I want to join? I’m never one to turn down an invitation, but I’m having far too much fun to leave.
At the bar I find the co-owner Seb Morley pouring pints. He says, “At first we were not sure that it would catch on but many players pay for an hour and then ask to extend. We’ve had daughters playing with their mums and grandmas so it’s generations playing. It is probably the only sport where you can compete against your grandparents.”
Peckham Bowls closes tonight at 9.00 pm- so my friend and I take it as our cue to leave. On the Tube home I book to play with my boyfriend next week. Date night at the bowls club will definitely beat the local nightclub in future.
This article written by Georgina Roberts was extracted from The Times dated 26th August 2023.