Advertisement

Belleville girl hopes lawn bowling can catch on with her peers

Click to play video: '9-year-old rubbing elbows with veteran lawn bowlers'
9-year-old rubbing elbows with veteran lawn bowlers
A young Belleville girl has been keeping up with some much older competition on the lawn bowling court – Jul 31, 2023

A young Bellville, Ont., girl is hoping to grow the sport’s popularity among her peers.

Like it or not, lawn bowling is played primarily by an older demographic — at least it is at the Kingston lawn bowling club on Napier Street. But nine-year-old Elise Kerr is hoping that can change.

“It’s for any age and you can enjoy it no matter what. It’s about having fun,” Elise said.

At such a young age, Elise has taken a liking to the sport, as has her older brother, after being introduced to it by her father as an alternative to five-pin bowling.

“We noticed there was an open house at the lawn bowling club in Belleville,” Elise’s father, Owen Kerr, said. “We thought we’d stop by and see how they could do and they just picked it up instantly.”

Story continues below advertisement
Click to play video: 'Kingston’s racquet centre opens'
Kingston’s racquet centre opens

According to her father, it didn’t take long for her to grasp the basic fundamentals and to hold her own against some much older competition.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

And Elise is much wiser than your average nine-year-old; she understands there’s much to learn from more experienced players.

“Learning from older people is a good lesson because they know probably more than us when you’re younger,” Elise said.

“So I think that just learning and using more strategy is better.”

But she’d also like to take that knowledge and apply it against some players closer to her own age.

“We’re trying to get a youth tournament to come around here and I think we’re going to go to one in Cobourg soon so I hope we’ll be able to do that,” she said.

Story continues below advertisement

With any luck, Elise won’t be the youngest player at her local lawn bowling club for much longer.

Sponsored content

AdChoices