Lawn Bowls at CWG 2022 — The beckoning in Birmingham

While the Indian teams aren’t yet among the heavyweights in lawn bowls, their success in Birmingham shows that now they aren’t easily crumbling under pressure. The medals gave the players some much-needed attention.

Key player: Team Skip Rupa Rani Tirkey ensured on multiple occasions that her bowls toppled the better-placed opponent bowls and cut down their advantage. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

In early August, as the Commonwealth Games were underway in Birmingham, Indian sports fans trawled the internet for the answer to a simple question — what is lawn bowls?

The country’s women’s fours team had beaten New Zealand in the semifinal to qualify for the gold medal contest. Lovely Choubey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Pinki, and Rupa Rani Tirkey got people hooked to their sport, which is relatively unknown to most.

Long before the breakthrough in Birmingham, India’s journey in lawn bowls started at the 2007 National Games in Guwahati. In three years, a contingent was ready to compete at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

India also fielded lawn bowls teams in 2014 and 2018. The teams won nothing, the sport got no attention.

All that changed at Victoria Park, where the team qualified for its first final and assured India of a medal. People wanted to know the rules of the sport, India’s best players and their stories.

An appearance in the final even got a dedicated television slot. The importance of being on live television is tremendous, for the individual as well as the sport, according to Tirkey. Indian teams never had this visibility in the past.

“Earlier, friends used to ask where they could watch me play and I had no answer. But, this time we had a full live telecast and everyone was able to see,” said Tirkey, the women’s fours team Skip. A skip in lawn bowls has the crucial responsibility of taking the final two bowls.

Before the final high, though, India’s campaign at the Birmingham Games was on an all too familiar course of closely missing out on a medal. The first of these narrow misses came at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games where the women’s triples team lost to Australia by a single point in the semifinal.

In 2014, the men’s fours team made it to the last four but lost to England 14-12. India then lost the bronze medal match.

On a roll at Victoria Park

But in Birmingham, something changed. The women’s fours team, trailing the 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist New Zealand by a point, snatched four off the final round to seal a berth in the final. India beat the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games runner-up South Africa in a closely-fought final to ensure India’s first medal in the sport was gold.

These wins against top teams were not luck by chance. “We had prepared for such close situations after narrowly missing out on medals in previous editions of Commonwealth Games,” said Tirkey.

Landmark win: (From left) Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia, and Rupa Rani Tirkey celebrate after winning the lawn bowls women’s fours final. India defeated South Africa, the 2014 Commonwealth Games gold medallist. | Photo Credit: PTI

A few days later, it was the men who made their mark. Playing against England — the bronze medallist from the 2018 Commonwealth Games — in the semifinal, India won three points in the last round to win the contest 13-12 and assure another medal for India. Despite a loss in the final, the men’s team medal saw India end its campaign as the fifth-best nation in lawn bowls at the Games. More than the medals, India’s wins established that it is at a level where it will not crumble easily under pressure.

What changed for India?

There was a pattern to India’s losses against top teams in the past. “We used to concede four-five points from a single end which allowed our opponents to take big leads,” said Tirkey. In Birmingham, the quartet had a clear plan — don’t concede more than two points from an end. Tirkey took the responsibility.

Taking the last two attempts in every round in her designated role as skip, Tirkey ensured time and again that her bowls nudged out better-placed bowls of opponents.

The national camp

The Birmingham dividends came from investments made in Delhi, believes Anju Luthra, the team’s manager. “We got our players into a four-month national camp (at the Yamuna Sports Complex in New Delhi), where our primary aim was to try different team combinations and simulate real games,” said Luthra.

The camp, however, was not all smooth sailing. Like all sports, COVID-19 affected lawn bowls.

The Bowling Federation of India wanted to conduct the camp well in advance so that the players could leave for England and practise for at least a month before the Commonwealth Games. “A month (training in England) would have helped in getting used to the speed of the greens and overall conditions. But, we had to make do with training in India,” said Sunaina Kumari, board member of the federation.

India’s preparation was also affected by the team’s coach from New Zealand not making it to the camp in Delhi.

Luthra, explaining how they continued in the absence of a coach, said, “As a makeshift solution, we brought in five technical associates from India, affiliated with the World Bowls (the sport’s international governing body). They supervised the camp, made schedules, and even analysed player performances.”

India won silver in the men’s fours category. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Even in Birmingham, a couple of weeks from the main event, the Indian players found shelter at a bowling club in North London when they could not obtain access to the training rinks at Victoria Park.

A new dawn?

The medals got lawn bowls players some much-needed attention. “The players and the sport getting attention and financial support is our biggest win from these Commonwealth Games. I hope this proves to be the tipping point,” said Kumari.

Currently, 20 States in India have lawn bowls teams, and Kumari hopes the Birmingham success will get the remaining States on board. “Apart from spreading the sport to more parts of India, the federation is looking to tap into the age-group categories and get younger people to start the sport.”

For the players, the aim is a bit bigger. “If one gold medal out of a possible eight makes such a difference, imagine what will happen if we return with three or four?” said Tirkey.

Tirkey’s desire for more success is not impractical.

India’s medals came in the longest team format — the fours. The singles players, however, failed to make it past the group stage, while other team formats — doubles and triples, saw India bow out in ways similar to the past editions.

India will get a shot at cementing itself as a consistent lawn bowls side at the Asian Championships in Gold Coast next year. Medal wins at the Championship will help complement the Birmingham high.