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Chapter 2 Bowling Through the Ages |
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“Let the Armada wait”
If we take a quantum leap through time to 1588, we find ourselves in the period of ‘Good Queen Bess’ when, using knowledge gained from exploits against the power of Spain in the New World, John Hawkins had revitalised the ‘Queen’s Navy’. One year earlier he had used his ships, under the command of Sir Francis Drake, to make an attack on the Spanish fleet at Cadiz, a daring raid, which earned the title of ’Singeing the king of Spain’s beard’ It was the final straw which led to the Spanish Armada sailing from Lisbon, (then under the control of Spain) with an objective of transporting a large Spanish army from the Netherlands, to battle on Britain’s shores .
As messenger frigates brought news of this to Plymouth, it is said that Sir Francis Drake was playing a game of Bowls with Sir Walter Raleigh on the Hoe. When told of the Spanish ships he replied, “ We still have time to finish the game and thrash the Spaniards too” ! It was a gallant speech, but it appears that with his knowledge of local tides, he knew that in any case, no ship could leave Plymouth harbour for some hours. It is also an interesting thought that Drake was probably breaking the law by playing bowls in a public place!
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A banister knob brings in the Bias.
The Woods used to play bowls today, are not equi-shaped (as a spherical ball), but are almost like a squashed ball, or very fat wheel. Also the shape of the edge which runs along the ground, is so contrived as to cause the ‘wood’ to travel in an arc, not a straight line.
No one knows what type of bowls Drake used, but in 1522 the Duke of Suffolk ( all the best people play bowls) played a very heavy shot, splitting his bowl in half. At this he went into his house, returning with a stairway banister knob, which he proceeded to use as a replacement for his damaged bowl.
To his surprise, instead of following a straight line, the flattened side of the knob caused it to roll with a bias, giving it a curved line of projection. Immediately he experimented, and excitedly found he could bend his bowl around those of his opponents. As word of this spread, others also experimented by altering their bowls, so it was that biased woods, became the norm.
In the early 15th century, bowls were made of various hardwoods, (thus giving rise to the term used today for the bowls we use) it was during the 16th century that Lignum Vitae (Wood of life) started to be used, some years after the discovery of its West Indian homeland by Columbus, in 1493. This wood, which comes from the National Tree of the Bahamas, has the distinction of being the heaviest wood known. When placed in water it sinks to the bottom straightway. It is still used today in the production of mallets for the game of Croquet. Modern bowling woods are made of a very hard plastic material, being generally produced in black or brown. However since 2001, when certain rules of the game were altered, they have been made in a variety of colours, bringing a new brightness to the rink.
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Shakespeare and Bowls
Shakespeare writing Richard II act 3 scene 4, sets the scene at Langley in the garden of the Duke of York.
Enter the Queen and two Ladies.
Two things the bard reveals. Firstly, that, ladies ‘even the queen’ played bowls in his day. Secondly, by the time he wrote this play, (1595) woods with a bias were being used. In his tragedy ‘Cymbeline’ Act 2 scene 1 there is a wonderful comment on a bowls match.
In one short speech, Shakespeare reveals that bowls was played to a ‘jack’. Bowling was a serious business, this one nearly ended up in a duel! Prince Cloten lost a hundred pounds wager money, (some money it that day) had a bout of cursing at having “kissed the jack” but lost the game through a worm cast. And what’s new ? He said it was his bad luck that cost him the game and money. The first Lord makes a reply
So it seems that the poor opponent, won the money but suffered a fractured skull from Cloten’s wood. (red card) It all sounds pretty rough to me, not a bit like the game today. The scene ends with Cloten vowing a gamblers vow, to recover his losses at bowls, in a game of chance, with an Italian visitor.
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Henry VIII spoils the fun!
Going back in history, records show that Henry VIII was a bowler, however because “ Boyers, Fletchers, Stringers, and Arrowhead makers”, were spending too much time playing bowls, to the detriment of their trade, he banned the game in a 1511 Statute. Exceptions were made for those persons rich enough to have their own grounds. On payment of one hundred pounds, he allowed these to construct bowling greens and play Bowls. But it was for private use only, the king gave an order that no one should “ play at any bowle or bowles in opens space out of his own garden or orchard”.
In 1541 Henry confirmed, and consolidated, all earlier acts made by his predecessors, (Edward III, Richard II, and Henry IV.). This act remained on the Statute Books until the reign of Queen Victoria some three hundred years later.
James the first ( Who gave us a version of the Bible), condemned football, and golf, but encouraged the playing of bowls in a pamphlet he wrote entitled ‘The Book of Sports’. During the Puritan period, when Cromwell ruled with iron hand, all sports, together with Christmas, (and many other things) were proscribed. Following the lifting of the prohibition in the late sixteen hundreds, it is sad to record, Bowls did not recover as well as some other sports, struggling for popularity in England.
The canny Scots, who know a good thing when they see it, wisely preserved an interest it the sport, keeping it alive. This is demonstrated by the fact that in 1840, there was a governing body for Lawn Bowls in Scotland, which in its wisdom produced a set of rules, which have changed very little over the ensuing years.
The ‘English Bowling Association’ did not come into existence until 1903. W.G. Grace the famous Gloucestershire cricketer, was a lawn bowler, he also holds an honoured place in bowling history being elected as their first President. The founders of this group introduced very strict rules regarding the state of greens used for play which some found restrictive. This resulted in a rival association being formed in 1926, which opened the way for bowling on almost any piece of level grassland large enough to accommodate a rink. This group was renamed in 1945 as the English Bowling Federation or EBF. |