Ted and Cheryl’s Retirement Trip
This April, my wife and I completed our retirement trip to the United Kingdom that we planned for March of 2020. My wife's grandmother immigrated from Belfast and I as a novice lawn bowler wanted to visit Taylor's in Glasgow, Scotland to buy a set of bowls while visiting their factory. In addition through the aid of the Internet I found several lawn bowling clubs in the Dublin area and had one of them, Leinster invite me for " sandwich and cake" after we rolled. We were excited because of it's proximity to Trinity College a great tourist destination.
As fate would have it, we could not make that original trip and had to wait out Covid restrictions to finally be given the green light to travel. My wife reminded me on several occasions that we were not crossing the "pond" to lawn bowl but I was able to fit two visits in during our 15 day visit, although it was altered. The Leinster club was closed,( so I was able to switch to Kenilworth) as was Taylor's and we revised our plans and extended the excursion into England. This helped in my endeavor to roll some "woods" in Folkstone which is 30 miles southeast of London, of course we had to break for "tea" after 5 ends.
Although I had to squeeze in my lawn bowling while touring the U.K. it was delightful to experience the enthusiasm and welcoming reception from complete strangers that quickly became "mates" and members of our international bowls family to me, much like I have experienced here in the states and Canada.
The rich tradition of the sport has faded as most members are aging. We are not replacing them with the younger generation. It seems like during the "hey-day" that was neglected and now we are looking at sagging membership and club closings.
NOT in Pittsburgh, it is truly inspiring to experience a renaissance of sort here in my hometown and help guide interested guests, whether it is through our OSHER program with CMU or our weekly Thursday night community night to have people visit our lovely greens which can actually serve as a sanctuary to introduce them to our game.
