What may be Canada’s oldest lawn bowling club is heading into its 150th year with one problem: not enough people know this timeless sport exists.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake Lawn Bowling Club opened its 149th season Saturday with a bagpipe parade and ceremonial first bowl, but club president Martin Quick says the milestone year carries two urgent priorities: increasing membership and replacing the club’s playing surface before its sesquicentennial anniversary.
The club dates to 1877, when visitors bowled on the grounds of the old Queen’s Royal Hotel, but COVID-era restrictions gutted membership and the roster has still not recovered.
The carpet on the club’s current green, installed when it moved to the NOTL Community Centre in the early 2000s, has never been replaced. Quick says it prevents wheelchair access to the playing surface.
“What we’re looking for is a new carpet,” he said. “The original carpet, it’s done its job, it has to be replaced.”
The club has been trying to recover its membership base since pandemic-era restrictions cut active play and froze recruitment for two seasons. Past president Paul McHoull says those years broke the club’s usual pipeline for new members.
“It really hurt in the sense that for a couple of years we were sort of lost, and we lost some members,” said McHoull.
The club currently fields competitive women’s and men’s teams, with matches on Thursdays and Wednesdays respectively. Recreational play runs Mondays and Wednesdays from 1:30 to 4 p.m., Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Open houses run every Saturday through May and June for prospective members.
Coun. Erwin Wiens delivered the ceremonial first bowl following the traditional parade onto the green, led by piper Gary Cooper. Wiens also pledged support for local recreation spending.
“When it comes to sports and recreation, those promises I’ll make because that’s what we need,” said Wiens. “Without it, this doesn’t exist.”
McHoull, who served as president in 2015 and 2016 and again during the pandemic recovery, says the club holds a place in NOTL’s heritage that stretches back to when visitors arrived by boat and train to summer at the Queen’s Royal Hotel. He says the club drew bowlers from across Ontario and from the United States during its early decades on the old Regent Street site.
“Arguably we’re the oldest club in Canada,” he said. “It’s really a part of the heritage of this town.”
Quick says the club is hoping to plan at least one event to mark the 150th anniversary but has not finalised anything with the board. The carpet replacement, he says, is the more pressing item.
“To have a bowling club that’s 150 years old here in Canada is really something,” he said.
Quick expects the carpet replacement to move forward before the 2027 season opens.
