Feature
Issue No. 38 - December/January 07/08
New bowls option is hard to beat
by Pamela Brombal
A local sports entrepreneur is busy proving grass isn’t always greener where sports performance is concerned.
Howard Thomas, an avid lawn bowler, has developed the world’s first lawn bowls game system that can be played on hard, smooth surfaces - and the system emulates the behaviour of lawn bowls.
The idea came to Howard a few years ago after a match he was playing was rained out.
He noticed a frustrating contrast with the nearby tennis courts, which were simply swept clear after the rain passed.
“Part way through the game it poured with rain,” he says.
“The lawn bowls games were cancelled and everyone went home.
“Ten minutes later the sun came out and the tennis players were playing again.
“This prompted me to invent a bowl that would play on a hard court surface, which would enable bowlers to do the same as the tennis players.”
Lawn bowls is a long-established part of Australian culture, especially for retirees, but the game has some drawbacks.
Variation between greens puts visiting players at a disadvantage on ‘away’ greens and has inhibited the growth of international bowls competitions.
Moreover, it is difficult to achieve consistency over the whole surface of a grass lawn. Maintaining the lawn is costly and labour intensive and weather conditions restrict play.
As he developed the hard court game system Howard found he was able to eliminate most of the problems associated with traditional lawn bowls, but the challenge came when he attempted to emulate the ‘feel’ of a lawn bowl and its rolling friction.
This was a vital point; he knew the success of hard court bowls would depend on its similarity to lawn bowls.
“The challenge was to improve the rolling friction to emulate a lawn bowl. This was done by research and development with handmade equipment, until we approached Henselite,” says Howard.
Henselite is a world leading ...
