Every Tuesday, John Tanner opens a small shack by Grasmere Lake in Washington Park. He pulls out a few poles and wooden boxes with big balls in them.
As he sticks the poles around a large green square area to set up lanes, clouds hover overhead, and there’s the possibility for more rain. But Tanner is hopeful that people will come out for what he’s setting up for: lawn bowling.
“They will start coming out. It's early yet, as I said, as we approach 6 (p.m.),” Tanner said. “But again, because it was raining earlier and it's kind of drizzling a little bit right now, the amount of people might be questionable. But we will have, oh, I would say six, seven people.”
He’s the president of the Washington Park Lawn Bowling Club, which celebrated its 100th year last year. Throughout that century, bowlers have come to Wash Park to play the sport casually and competitively, regardless of experience.
Exercise, fresh air and nice people
Tanner is a retired structural engineer who worked on buildings along Colorado Boulevard and designed the parking structure around Cherry Creek Mall. He’s only played the sport for six years, coming across it while walking around the park.
“Just walking around the park, don't live too far away and saw the people playing,” Tanner said. “When I was working, I didn't really think I had the time to come out. And so once I retired, I came out and took advantage of the 'Learn How to Bowl' and just started playing.”
Tanner thought he did pretty good when he first tried lawn bowling.
“I'm moderately coordinated and do well with this sort of stuff. In fact, I haven't improved much from when I first rolled because you get bad habits, and it's like golf. You really have to pay attention to what you're doing,” Tanner said.
Last year, the club had about 45 members. Tanner said the numbers have dropped off this year. But the game keeps bringing members like Mark Thorpe back.
“I came down here and met a really nice group of people. And it’s nice to get out and get some exercise and fresh air,” said Thorpe, who’s originally from England and works in the mining industry. “I'm being this close enough to a bowling green that it made sense.”
How to lawn bowl
Lawn bowling varies from similar sports like bocce and petanque in a few ways.
Players form two teams. Each team or player rolls four huge balls called bowls. The bowls are not perfectly spherical and won’t roll straight. One side has a small decoration called a bias that draws the path of the bowl in an arc.
Each player rolls their bowls toward an object ball called a jack. A bowl is then rolled alternately by each player. Every player has four bowls and rolls in turn until all bowls have been played. Unlike in bocce, you’re not trying to knock away other players’ bowls.
The team or player with the closest bowl to the jack scores one point. If their next nearest bowl is closer to the jack than any of their opponent’s best bowl, then they score two points, and so on.
'Sometimes it's like any sport'
Philip Clouse, another Wash Park member, picked up the sport in China and played in California. Like Tanner, the mining engineer doesn’t live too far from Washington Park, and one day saw people lawn bowling and decided to play. His wife encouraged him to play.
“We were watching the guy in China practicing and my wife says, “Why don't you go out and play that? It's kind of like bocce. And so I did,” Clouse said. “And then years later my wife said, “Oh, I saw them lawn bowling [at Washington Park]. You should go over and play.”
Clouse has played in California. But, he doesn’t consider himself a pro. But, he keeps coming back because the sport is fun.
“Sometimes it's just like any sport. It's like basketball and you can't make a free shot, a free throw,” Clouse said. “But, it's just fun to play.”
A 'pristine site' for the long-running club
There’s no one consensus among lawn bowling experts about when or where the sport began — there are signs of variations being played in Egypt, Rome, China and Polynesia.
But we do know for sure that the Washington Lawn Bowling Club was founded in 1924. The clubhouse where the equipment is stored is a former tuberculosis hut and was installed a year later. The club joined the U.S. Lawn Bowls Association (now Bowls USA) in 2004.
“We have an inner club tournament that we have at the end of each year and we have a trophy and big deal and we usually have, maybe 10, 12 people that are serious about playing in it. Again, it's very competitive and so the better players will enter the tournament,” Tanner said.
The club holds internal competitions, but hasn’t yet hosted regional or national tournaments. But members have competed in tournaments outside of Denver.
Tanner said they attract visitors from other clubs who like the scenery of the green’s location.
“Most people find this site very attractive with the lake and the mountains and it's a very pristine site,” Tanner said.
The club’s bowling green is about 125 square feet. While the city provides the water, the club is responsible for cutting the grass.
Tanner said the green is considered a slower one.
“Most of the greens are fast because that's just the ball curves more. It's amazing,” Tanner said. “You throw it on a very fast green, you would almost throw the ball all the way over on the edge and it would curve all the way back to the center.”
Sometimes, lawn bowling meets croquet
The Washington Park Lawn Bowling Club shares the green with the Denver Croquet Club on opposite evenings. Last Friday, the two clubs shared the green together, giving each other lessons on their respective sports and playing matches.
Ironically, that’s how Suzann Stover got into lawn bowling. After moving from Austin, Texas, eight months ago, the interior designer had intended to join the Denver Croquet Club. But she saw an open house for the Washington Park Lawn Bowling Club, tried the sport, and thought it was more fun.
“It's a great way to come out and enjoy the park and enjoy the weather,” Stover said. “So yeah, so far so good. And it's not too complicated. I think anyone can pick it up because even the guys who have been here for years still throw bad ones.”
The Washington Lawn Bowling Club hosts free lessons every Tuesday night. The club season usually goes from April to October.
