‘Lawn Bowls Club’ Breaks Ground
The Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club held a groundbreaking ceremony for the upcoming construction of its lawn bowls bowling green on Wednesday, July 16 at its location at the Fort Wayne Curling Club – 3837 N. Wells Street, Fort Wayne, IN 46808.
For the last 9 months, the Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club, a division of The Fort Wayne Curling Club, has been fundraising for the construction of the bowling green. Over that period, the club has raised $225,000 through support from the AWS Foundation, Indiana Sports Corporation (Team Indiana), and fundraising from Curling Club members and interested lawn bowlers.
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown, and rolled stretch of turf for the playing of the sport of Lawn Bowls. To the layperson, it can be thought of as a 120’ x 120’ extremely flat (not more than 1/8” variance) golf green. The Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club will construct its bowling green in the rear yard of the Fort Wayne Curling Club located at 3837 N. Wells Street. The construction of the green will entail leveling of the area, excavation to roughly 24” below grade, installation of drainage pipes, installation of 4” of stone for drainage, a 3” choker layer, and a 14” root zone made of sandy loam. Additionally, a plinth, ditch, and bank will be constructed around the green. Sprinklers, sidewalks, lighting, and a couple of sheds will also be added.
It is planned that Lawn Bowls will be available April –September and Curling will be available September – April, allowing the club’s facilities to be utilized year-round.
Launching next spring, The Fort Wayne Lawn Bowls Club, will offer residents of Fort Wayne and surrounding areas the opportunity to participate in the centuries old sport of Lawn Bowls (often referred to as “Bowls”). Similar to Bocce, Bowls entails players rolling a ball (known in Lawn Bowls as a “bowl”) towards a target ball (known as the “jack”) with the objective being to have your bowls closer to the jack than your opponents. Each bowl closer than the opponent’s closest bowl at the conclusion of the “end” will score one point. Games are played either to a certain score or for a defined number of ends. Unlike bocce, the bowls have a slight bias to them and the curl as they roll down the green, similar to the trajectory of a curling stone.
Lawn Bowls was first played in 13th century England but draws its roots from both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome and it is thought that it was brought to England by Roman soldiers. The game gained popularity and then was banned in the 14th and 15th centuries because monarchs like King Edward III feared that it distracted men from archery practice, which was essential for national defense. The game experienced a resurgence in the 19th century when the invention of the lawn mower vastly improved the quality of the bowling greens.
The first bowling green in the United States opened in Boston in 1615 but the sport gained greater popularity in the 19th century thanks to Scottish immigrants. Today, Bowls USA is the national governing body of the sport in the USA.
Lawn Bowls is played in over 40 countries and is quite popular in Commonwealth nations like Scotland, England, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It is a core sport of the Commonwealth Games. In Australia, up to 3% of the population plays bowls regularly. In the United States, the hotbeds of the sport are in retirement communities such as Florida, Southern California, and Arizona but clubs exist throughout the United States in cities like Seattle, Portland, Milwaukee, New York City, Pittsburgh, Boston, and more.
The introduction of Lawn Bowls to the Fort Wayne community will allow people of all ages and abilities to play a relaxing sport on a summer evening. The club plans to hold regularly scheduled leagues, jitney nights (pick-up games), public Try Bowls sessions, corporate teambuilding events, private events, adaptive bowls programs, and programs for both juniors and seniors.
Curling has a long and storied history in Fort Wayne but the modern Fort Wayne Curling Club was founded in 2010 by Craig Fischer, Greg Eigner, Jerri Mead, and Dan McCoy. The club started curling at the Parkview Ice House (then known as the Lutheran Health Sports Center) and, in 2014, opened a 3-sheet dedicated facility in a rented warehouse on Wells Street (now partially occupied by 2Toms Brewing Company). In 2019, the club opened a dedicated 4-sheet curling facility in the former Habitat ReStore building located at 3837 N. Wells Street, directly across Wells Street from the Parkview Ice House. The Fort Wayne Curling Club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that offers leagues for curlers of all ages and abilities, Learn to Curl sessions, private events, corporate events and activities for those with special needs.
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