Bowls in Australia has been from the beginning been based at Clubs, who owned or leased their premises, and controlled their own greens. Since 1880 they have formed “Associations” to run certain kinds of competition for them, but it is how the clubs operate that determines the nature of the game. The nature of the Clubs has been through several distinct phases during the twentieth century.

Prior to the Second World War, most Bowls Clubs were Gentleman’s Clubs, on the English model. They were expensive to belong to, and were designed as a meeting place for the movers and shakers of society, who were mostly elderly, and all male. There were not very many of them.

After the Second World War, bowls clubs, along with many other community organizations, underwent a radical change. There were vast numbers of young men who returned from the war to make a new life.  Their previous life had been completely disrupted for so long that simply returning to their old ways was not an option. Many of them were living in a new area, where they had no ties. Bowls Clubs took on a “community centre” function, and provided the camaraderie that returned soldiers had become used to. Six o’clock closing in hotels throughout Australia at this time made private Clubs appealing, and team activities had an appeal too. There was a huge expansion in the number of clubs, and the number of bowlers.

As time passed, new generations of young people took to other pastimes, particularly after 6 o’clock closing was abolished, and clubs changed again to be more of a support system for the elderly. They came to rely on a constant influx of recent retirees to run them. However, in more recent times, it has not been possible to entice as many recent retirees to take up bowls. There are a number of reasons for this, related to changes in society generally, but the reasons are powerful ones, and we have to accept that we cannot now return to the past. The number of bowlers who are members of bowling clubs, who enter elite competitions, and who play in the Pennant competitions is steadily dropping. The existing players are getting older and older, and the number of new recruits is less than the number who drop out.

Many Clubs, however, have their greens full of bowlers. Most play in bare feet, pay by the hour, and use old bowls provided by the Clubs. Many start by participating in bowls days organized by their work. But not many have joined clubs, and launched themselves into “serious” bowls.

In a sense the traditional game is dying. But no doubt there were people after the second World War who would have felt that the game they knew was dying. It didn’t die, but it did change. And it is happening again.

Many Clubs have introduced gaming machines. These ensure their viability, but bring their own problems. Clubs and the game, can survive with just corporate and casual barefoot bowls, even without gaming machines. The standard of play will not be very high, and if we are to continue to develop elite bowlers, we will need to persuade at least some of the barefoot bowlers to take the game seriously. Trying to persuade the next generation of bowlers to adopt the traditional game isn’t going to work however. We will have to apply basic marketing strategy, and develop forms of the game that will appeal to them. What will they be like? The only definite requirement to emerge so far is that they certainly must not require long term commitments, such as to every Saturday afternoon for months. Competitions that would have appeal to the completely uncommitted may be in the evenings finishing about 9.30pm, not require uniforms, be “open” as far as gender is concerned, and be triples rather than fours. However, we need to try a lot of different models, to see which work best.