Bowls: Rock 'n' roll revolution on the greens

By ALAN PERROTT

Hip young things, celebrities, DJs and cheap booze are spawning a rock 'n' roll revolution within one of the most traditional bastions of Kiwi culture: lawn bowls.

Inner-city Auckland clubs are now cool for young urbanites looking to add a dash of irony to their chill-down recreation time.

The greens of the Auckland Bowls Club, trapped in time between the Domain, Auckland Hospital and motorway ramps, are home to Roll Ups - social tournaments for young, white-clad novices enjoying a day of sport to the accompaniment of DJs.

The Grey Lynn Bowls Club is the green of choice for musical notables such as Dimmer's Shayne Carter and assorted members of Deja Voodoo. Across town, stalwarts of the Ponsonby club get changed alongside budding juniors such as C4 host Clarke Gayford, Andrew Mulligan from TV3's Sportzah, Radio Sport's D'arcy Waldergrave, Ben Boyce from The Rock and Pulp Sport and a scrum of New Zealand Warriors.

It's all thanks to getting the cold shoulder from the RSA, said Boyce, 26, who uses a dusty set of bowls handed down from his grandfather.

"We wanted to try something different for a birthday party. The RSA were pretty frosty, but the bowls club welcomed us in and a big group of mates ended up having a great afternoon of playing and drinking.

"We kept going back and as word of mouth spread, more people kept joining us. I've got at least 50 years ahead of me to get good enough for the Commonwealth Games."

They have suffered a few pratfalls, said Gayford. A crack at an invitational tournament led to them being set up against a foursome led by former world number one Rowan Brassey - "we got smoked."

Issac Thackray, a 32-year-old who works in advertising, felt the lure of the green after watching the Australian comedy Crackerjack, about a young advertising exec who takes out membership to get free parking.

"That started it off for me. I went down to the local club with four or five mates and ended up making it a regular feature on Wednesdays over summer."

The Ponsonby club attracted only three new members during 2002, but Thackray was the club's 91st new signing last year alone. He is working on his draw with his great-grandfather's bowls.

"It's bloody great actually. Bowls is one of the few things you can do where you can drink and play at the same time and it doesn't affect your game too much."

Clearly, drinking with the boys is a major part of the appeal - "cheapest beer in Ponsonby," rejoiced Boyce - but so is the scope the venues provide for playing around with retro cool.

Matiu Sadd, lead singer of The WBC and freelance television director with Maori Television, is one of the creators of the Roll Ups at Auckland, the city's oldest bowls club.

"We held four Roll Ups last summer with DJs, a barbecue and a bar, and it grew from a handful to about 60 people at the last one.

"Everyone was in their whites or the maddest costumes, it's just a lot of fun and the club really went for it. A few of the old jokers came along to explain the rules and then everyone had a cool time."