Keen lawn bowlers at Ingenia Lifestyle Chambers Pines have taken advantage of the community’s brand new $3 million clubhouse with brand new, competition-grade lawn bowls facility.

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening residents host lawn bowls nights for residents to get together for a friendly game, a few laughs and an easy workout on the new green.

The physical and mental health benefits for seniors who play lawn bowls comes in an abundance, with the sport offering low impact cardiovascular fitness, hand and eye coordination support, as well as mental wellbeing and social support.

Project sales manager Lynda Ruddell said residents loved getting together with each other weekly for a friendly game of bowls, which occurs in the evening.

“The residents look forward to heading down to the bowling green each week, their passion for the game is contagious – they know how to play but they don’t take it too seriously.

“Having facilities available for the residents makes such an impact on their physical and mental health, the low impact exercise and the social aspect has majority of the residents out and about,” Lynda said.

John Keeble and his wife Margaret learned how to play bowls from fellow residents after moving into the community more than 12 years ago and have been instrumental in teaching new residents how to play lawn bowls.

“We wanted to be part of a safe, fun community and as soon as my wife and I moved in we became interested in a number of the activities on offer, but bowls is by far our favourite,” John said.

“Over the years, more and more people have become interested in the game, we can have upwards of 15 people at every game. We have such a great time, I think we have more laughs on the green than anywhere else in the community.

JOHN’S TIPS FOR FIRST TIME LAWN BOWLERS:

There’s a bit of skill behind lawn bowls, but for social bowls there are no strict rules. Here are some of John’s best tips for a good game:

• It doesn’t matter if you aren’t the best bowler, there are residents who are really good and others who are still learning
• Make it fun and get a bit of exercise or go along as a get together with your community
• Get your own bowls and get the right size. There’s different sizes and lots of people can’t handle the bigger bowls
• The speed you choose is the ultimate, if you don’t get the speed right you can end up in the ditch at the other end or 20m too short
• The biggest thing then is learning the distance to the jack
• Get the direction or amount of bias right. Everyone has their own bias, the rate that it’ll turn at the end of the green
• Learn to get your bowl on the correct lane, some bowls can go a little haywire, but we just pick it up and move it across
• Play more and improve your game. There’s no such thing as a bad student!