Do You Know . . . ?
A series of occasional articles documenting some olde bowles curiosities and little-known facts
No. 2 - Do You Know What W G Grace Did for Bowls?
Click on any photo to enlarge it and reveal the caption
Say to any sports-loving person the letters 'W G' and they will almost certainly respond with the name 'Grace'. William Gilbert Grace (1848–1915) the eighth of nine children and a doctor by profession, dominated cricket as an outstanding all-rounder for almost half a century and became a celebrity and legend in his own lifetime. With his all-round mastery and towering presence (he was 6' 2" [1.88 m] tall and at his heaviest weighed up to 18 stone [114.3 kg]) Grace became cricket's first big draw in more ways than one, bringing it to a mass audience and transforming it into the unrivalled spectator sport of the summer. W G had interests in many sports and towards the end of his cricketing career in the late 1890s he began to take a keen interest in bowls. Although he became an ardent and successful bowler, it was his momentous effect on the national game by which bowlers will best remember him. This article looks at two key aspects of how he radically changed the as yet unorganised and virtually stagnant world of bowls in England, but first we need to set the scene at the time of his involvement.
In 1899 at the Kennington Oval, three Australian visitors were watching the cricket test match between England and Australia. Their enthusiasm for cricket was only matched by their passion for bowls, as it transpired that the visitors were senior officials of two Australian state bowling associations. Their topic of conversation revolved continually around a common theme - that if a game of cricket between England and Australia could arouse such interest, enthusiasm and support, wouldn't the same apply to a game of bowls? But how could they progress their idea, for although the game was gaining popularity in England and a few bowls associations had been formed, there had been no move to form a national association to plan and manage such an event. Fortunately, a Mr S E Yelland, a bowler from Hove in Sussex, became enthusiastically involved in the Australians' conversation and agreed to do whatever he could to quickly facilitate a match between the two countries. A meeting of interested clubs was arranged and out of their discussions was born, still in 1899, the Imperial Bowling Association (IBA), though its intentions were more to encourage and arrange matches between the Commonwealth Countries than to unite and organise English bowling clubs. Because no uniform set of rules existed between the clubs, one of the prime items on the IBA's agenda was the question of what laws should apply to these contests. The only set of laws that had any standing were those drawn up by Glasgow solicitor William Mitchell in 1849 and adopted by the Scottish Bowling Association (SBA) on its foundation in 1892. But much to the surprise, horror and indignation of the IBA a request to the SBA to use their laws was refused on the grounds that they held the copyright. The IBA proceeded to do the only thing possible - concoct its own laws - and this they did, albeit based largely on the Scottish version. Subsequently, an invitation was made to the Australians to take part in a series of matches in the British Isles in the summer of 1901 which was duly accepted and completed (see illustration alongside). This then, broadly speaking, was the background to the English bowls scene in which Grace found himself.
W G's impact on bowls began in 1899, the year he made his last cricketing appearance for England, when he accepted an invitation from the Crystal Palace Company in London to help them form the London County Cricket Club. He became the club's secretary, manager and captain with an annual salary of £600 (equivalent to about £52,000 today) and with his Churchillian-like leadership skills had soon persuaded the powers that be to convert the Crystal Palace tennis courts into bowling greens, quickly followed by the inauguration of the London County Bowling Club in 1901. Aware of the problems encountered by the IBA when applying to the SBA to use their rules, Grace cannily and successfully applied to the SBA for affiliation of his new club. With the adoption of the Scottish code of laws, he invited two Scottish fours to play at the Crystal Palace that year. Another visit by Scottish bowlers to the same venue took place the following year and a few months later W G took a team up to Scotland which played at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayr to appreciative crowds of several hundred. His increasing involvement with Scottish bowlers taught him a great deal of how their national association was faring, and succeeding, in comparison with the struggling IBA. And on 8 June 1903 in Crystal Palace's cricket pavilion, by enlisting the sympathies of like-minded colleagues, he pushed his strategic plan a stage further by forming an English Bowling Association with himself as President. A month later, following invitations to the Scottish Bowling Association and bowlers from Ireland and Wales, the first international contests were held with Grace captaining the English team - a position he held until 1908. Out of respect for Grace they took place on the Crystal Palace and South London greens. Victory for England gave the game a substantial impetus and discussions during the contest led to the formation in 1904 of national bowling associations in Ireland and Wales. Meanwhile, following two years of wrangling, it wasn't until November 1905 that the IBA eventually admitted defeat, agreeing to forego its identity and merge with the EBA. Grace's indefatigability and strong leadership skills had again prevailed.
Grace was certainly not one for resting on his laurels, and while engaged in those activities outlined above and carrying out his day to day duties at Crystal Palace, he was also exploring other challenges to further the cause of the game. With the revival of interest in bowls at the beginning of the 20th century, it wasn't surprising that he quickly realised that there were more than enough enthusiasts to make bowling in winter a viable proposition. The problem was in finding suitable premises. The ace in Grace's hand was that his very workplace had, in his opinion, sufficient space for indoor bowling. But W G, a masterful tactician, decided that having won the day in respect of converting tennis courts to bowling greens, he would make haste slowly. Through his contacts with Scottish bowlers he had become aware of the formation of the Edinburgh Winter Bowling Association in 1905 where play took place at the Synod Hall. His own moment of triumph came in the following year when, in Crystal Palace's main gallery which he had come to know and love so well, England's first indoor bowling green was opened, with Crystal Palace Indoor Bowling Club being founded by 36 members of the outdoor club. Here it stayed until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 when the premises were taken over by the Admiralty as a recruiting and training centre. Grace died one year later from a cerebral haemorrhage.
With a bowls curriculum vitae that included: Formed London County Bowling Club in 1901; Founded the English Bowling Association (EBA) in 1903; President of the EBA from 1903 to 1905; Significantly influenced the formation of the Irish and Welsh Bowling Associations in 1904; Established Crystal Palace Indoor Bowling Club, the first in England, in 1906; Captained the England bowls team from 1903 to 1908, Grace's monumental impact on the English bowls scene was truly historic. We are left to ponder what might have happened if Grace had embraced the sport say twenty or thirty years earlier; or perhaps more intriguingly, what the outcome might have been if Grace hadn't turned to bowls at all.
References
Bolsover, Godfrey R. (1959), Who's Who and Encyclopaedia of Bowls
Haynes, Alfred H. (1972), The Story of Bowls
Newby, Donald & Rhys Jones, David (1993), Success Story - A 60 Year Celebration of the Growth of English Indoor Bowls
Other articles in this series
No.1. Click Bowl-boys
