All righty, then
Clearly I have depressed all of you into silence with yesterday's posting about Kilmainham Gaol. You came, you read, you slunk away without comment, in too much despair to carry on.
So here's a pleasant, random picture from the trip to take your mind off the gloom.
We were in Blackrock when we took this picture. I think they're bowling, but I'm not entirely sure. Those of you who know about Ireland can perhaps fill us in on the details.
I remember reading somewhere about how, in the old days, in the west of Ireland, people would set up bowling games on the country roads. That was back when traffic was nothing more than an occasional donkey cart hauling peat; you'd be killed if you tried that now.
But I don't know if that's what these people are playing. We stopped a couple of gardai who were walking by and asked them, but they didn't seem to know any more than just "bowling." Of course in American bowling there aren't anywhere near this many balls.
So what game is this?
22 comments:
Its a game called Bowls... Here from Wikipedia :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowls
Cheeky
so a little like curling? though not on ice.
Bowls is not very popular here, sort of considered upper class (in my opinion.
Im not clear on what exactly curling is... thing where they appear to sweep the ice ahead of a ball?
sorry Im from Dublin and I think that game just doesnt happen here, we only have ice-rinks at Christmas!
Cheeky
yes, curling you slide a big granite rock down the ice. it actually originated in scotland, so i bet that it has similar origins as bowls.
and upper class: yes, this looked upper crust, with all of the players dressed entirely in white. hard to picture upper crust people playing it on the back roads of the west of ireland.)
thanks for your help!
Yep. Looks like bowls.
You've got word veri. When did that happen?
I've seen this game before.
That dungeon looks horrible--I read your post from yesterday just now and wow. What a miserable way to go.
lane i put that on because i was getting lots of chinese spam comments. ill take it off again soon.
i know it's a pain. but so is deleting all that spam.
They still do road bowling in Co. Cork, on (fairly) quiet country roads.
They have the same game in the very North of Germany (Ostfriesland) and there's championships with Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and only one other European country taking part (can't remember which one, though). It's a funny sport, especially in Winter when the roads are icy in Germany and people carry at least one big bottle of 'schnapps' around with them to keep themselves warm.
All this has nothing to do with your game of bowls on the green lawn, though. Just crossed my mind when I read the word 'bowls'.
Oh, and I don't mind the word verification thing that much. I get a good bit of Chinese spam as well although lately it has decreased.
Just googled it and apparently the fourth country taking part in the European Championships in Road Bowling is Italy. Who would've though.
The English Women's National Bowling competition takes place on the greens at the end of our road...
The idea is first to roll a single small ball, the jack, to the end of the green. Then each person rolls four larger balls, and the team that lands the most balls nearest to the jack gains points.
The twist is that the larger balls are asymmetrically loaded, so they don't roll straight but in a curve. I've had a go, it's quite fun. A very sedate summer sport, though.
Yes, I know the road bowling that Babaloo is talking about. Here it is called "klootschieten," which translates into ball shooting, but "kloot" is also the name for a man's certain body part that you don't say in polite company, except when you say "klootschieten." Then it is allowed to say that word. What about you Babaloo? Do they have an alternative name for it in Germany?
aha! road bowling and "bowls" are two different sports. thanks for clearing that up.
i love the idea of weighted balls that go cockeyed. that sounds like fun.
Isn't "bowls" the game that the strange little men were playing in the story of Rip Van Winkle? I wonder if the strange little men were Irish! It would sure explain that "strong brew" that put him to that deep sleep!
I'm a bit curious about the bowls, but I've never tried it because only ever seen old people playing it. It seems to be an "over-60-only" game.
katie, now's the time to seize the day! zip it up! start an X-Treme Bowls club!
sarah lyall wrote a funny piece a while back about the british trying to make the endless, complicated game of cricket more appealing to young people. and what a fury that unleashed from the old.
Yes, it's Bowls - a game played here in Great Britain - predominantly by elderly people when they are retired. It's quite an exclusive sort of game and you have to wear all whites - skirts and tops for the ladies and trousers and tops for the men. And white caps!
Gossamer Woman, one word would be "Bosseln" (with a longish O) and the very much Ostfriesland dialect version would be "Klootschiessen" - that's almost the same as your Dutch version!
I was never very good at it, though.
It sounds a little bit like croquet without mallets. My mother loves lawn croquet and we played it all the time when I was a kid. We sure didn't wear white, though.
Well, you certainly did a good job of getting everybody's mind off the executions!
Well, if everyone else is like me, they want to come up with comments that match the quality of your posts, and that isn't so easy, believe me. Oh, the pressure!
It's Lawn Bowls, and yes, it is the domain of the retired and elderly.
Although at my cousin's wedding reception at the Bowls Club (very flash, not what you would expect) our whole family had a go. The more beer & wine consumed, the funnier it was. Especially with those uneven balls. You can just imagine the tastful Aussie humour and what we did with that!
And yes, a Bowls Club. Bowls is HUGE in Australia with the Oldies, and the clubs reflect pensioner budgets. $10 steak lunches and roast dinners too, with cheap beer so the young 'uns go along too, a few beers and a feed for under $20!
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