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