I tried to vaguely keep it secret to avoid this. But of course it came out. The bowls club we played at in WB had tennis courts next to the bowls green, and someone saw me playing once while they were playing tennis. It was exasperated when, in an inter-form cricket match, I was fielding and kind of accidentally bowled the ball back to the stumps along the ground rather than throw it much to everyone's amusement. I think I was more ignored than bullied!
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My uni flatmate tried hard, and failed, to hide the fact his in-laws (including his wife) were big into morris dancing as a family back in the day. There was plenty of photographic evidence - sadly for him.
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School is shit like this. Nowadays I'd be just 'Get fucked. I enjoy it. So what'. Much harder when you are aged 13 to 16 - though I will be doing my best to instil a level of 'give a fuck-ness' to my daughter.
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When they're only charging $520/table, I can see why they're struggling to pay their staff a decent wage.
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Well yes it was staggering…
Chicago: Poorer.
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Lots of people in the crowd/audience are wearing their club bowling kit - lots of different colours on display, like football kits. Blues, purples, yellows etc. But the ones actually doing the playing all wear either red or green. Are these playing kits provided by the organisers? If so, why? Do they toss for which colour? Why can't they play in whatever they want (like darts, for example)?
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I am confused. Why would people Bully Shady for liking bowling? We had a lawn bowls club in our village where you had to wear all white and the boys after playing football in the morning went there dressed up, drank beers and played. It was a fine old time and we were in our teens to early Twenties.
Don’t really see what the problem is. I thought lawn bowling was ace. Indoor bowling is just the American version of ruining a sport. I liked that too by the way.
Chicago: Lawn Jockey.
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Until about 10-15 years ago mandatory dress code was white shirts/blouses and grey trousers/skirt for casual play and league games, with white trousers/skirts and white shirts/blouses for competitions. If you were playing at county level, you'd also need a blazer (optionally removed while actually playing). Also all bowls were black or brown.
But obviously bowls has an issue with attracting younger generations, and introducing colour to the game was thought to be helpful. Most clubs now wear a coloured polo shirt for all their games (level regardless) and each county has a colour too. I can't recall exactly, but I think Notts was white with red and green highlights.
For the two people who are actually playing, yeah, it's the organisers who specify whether they are green or red. Rather than their club colours (or more likely their county colours, as I think you are technically representing your country once you get to this level of the national competitions, not 100% sure about that though). In summary I have no idea. I agree they should be able to wear their club colours. I guess there's an element of trying to help make it really clear to the casual observer. I dunno.
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When I was playing in WB there was an old geezer who I often was on the same team as - probably about 55, but he seemed old at the time! We used to enter some competitions and do quite well. He took me under his wing a bit and was a good player. But my god could he drink. Once I got to about 17 years old he would insist on buying the drinks and I would regularly stagger home after 4-5 pints multiple times a week. Basically every time we played a game, we'd have a few beers afterwards and a bag of chips - then sometimes watch the football as the clubhouse had Sky Sports. They were good times.
When I was about 18 years old and trying to get some money together for uni he paid me about £500 one summer to help him dig up his lawn. He helped and did most of it, and provided cans of carling while I was doing it. I put my back into it, but it took me a long time and he totally overpaid. He was just being nice.
He died in his early 60s from a heart-attack. My mum, after separating from my dad, ended up re-marrying his brother.
Aside .... bowls in Australia has a totally different demographic. It's almost like going for a game of snooker or pool with your mates in the evening. It's a very social activity, always involving beer, and lots of young people play it.
I presume you guys have seen this? It went viral a few years ago...
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We did bowls (outdoor) for a while at school. They had to have kids play so they got lottery funding for their new club house. Lasted a summer, they had cheap pop. We had to wear white t-shirts at the weekend but for the junior night we could wear football shirts. When we gave up hoppo the horse fucker continued playing, he was bullied for it.
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Shady taking up Swing Dancing to distract from his Crown Green Bowling exploits kind of reminds me of when I used to buy Doctor Who Monthly as a teenager and hide them under my jazz mags.
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Hmm.
And to Russ’ point, my brother did Morris Dancing once at school in the 70s and was never allowed to live it down. I feel like this may have contributed to him becoming not just misanthropic but practiced in a bewildering amount of deadly arts for the military.
Certainly enjoyed giving me a kicking in our youth. -
Your brother was Jason Bourne?
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Wouldn’t put it past him. As far as I can tell he’s spent the last 20+ years of his career helping to train others/special forces on survival skills. Most recently he was helping train Ukrainian troops.
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Could you ask him to join this forum? He sounds way more interesting than you. No offence.
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Tbf that was pretty fucking offensive.
