Glasgow bid to bring bowls to 1,000 pupils

Bowls has a proud Scottish tradition at Commonwealth Games level – and a determination to use Glasgow 2014 to boost the numbers of youngsters in the sport has reached school level.

The drive to introduce 1,000 Glasgow children to lawn bowls by the time of the 2014 Commonwealth Games got 
underway last session.

Led by volunteers and members of Jordanhill’s Woodend Bowling Club and supported by Bowls Scotland, Taylor Bowls and Active Schools the inaugural GlasBowl2012 introduced 350 local primary six pupils to the game.

The Primary schools involved were Jordanhill, Scotstoun, Whiteinch, Broomhill, Knightswood, Corpus Christi and St Paul’s. This year the initiative had been extended to other clubs and schools within the area.

“We held 12 classes at the schools last year and we are now repeating the process and spreading even wider,” 
explained GlasBowl organiser and Woodend member, Tom Hamilton.

“Following the success of the inaugural GlasBowl initiative last year we created our Juniors Bowling Section, the Woodend Warriors.”

Two of the Warriors – Patrick McGonnigle (Corpus Christie Primary School) and Fraser Munro (Knightswood Primary School) – both played in last year’s GlasBowl Competition that was won by Jordanhill Primary’s James Irvine, Laurie Corewyn, James Littlejohn and Rosie Ritchie. Two of this year’s Jordanhill team – Logan Scott and Cameron Low – are already Woodend Warriors.

“Lawn Bowls is one of the 17 sports of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and we see the next two years as a fantastic opportunity to promote, develop and transform the perceptions of the sport in Glasgow and in the wider Scottish context,” continued Hamilton.

“Jordanhill and Barr and Stroud Bowling Clubs have both come on board to deliver coaching and we are inviting other local clubs to get involved.”

The new bunch of kids involved are already looking forward to GlasBowl 2013 – it takes place at Woodend Bowling Club on Sunday, 23 June.