The Ancient Greeks and Romans did it and Sir Francis Drake kept the Spanish Armada waiting until he’d finished his game.
And now those of us in Scotland www.bowlsscotland.com, where it was turned into a modern sport, will be able to get out and roll some bowls again.
Was it an unprecedented restriction on liberties? No, we’ve been here before.
Our Medieval predecessors who had less choice of pastimes loved a good oul’ bowl.
But monarchs from Edward I to Henry VIII. banned the sport of lawns – possibly because it got in the way of archery practice.
Keep ‘em rolling
Now I picked up boules long before I even rolled grown-up bowls.
A summer in Menorca in the Balearic Islands with Uwe, a German boy, on my last holiday with my parents.
Neither of us knew a word of English but Uwe being a German knew that he had to win at all costs.
Nein! Uwe was delightful company and i had found my friend for my holiday.
Beach life will be different for a while in Menorca and other sunspots http://www.menorca.es/portal.aspx?IDIOMA=3 with parents and children asked to adapt.
But as a wee Scots boy and a German Junge prove you only need a set of boules… or mobile phones!
For more on the Balearic Islands visit https://www.seemallorca.com. And its biggest island Majorca on a cruise https://www.google.ie/amp/s/jimmurtytraveltraveltravel.com/2020/01/21/smooth-sailing-around-the-western-med/amp/.
Of course while us Scottish people will roll our bowls in a genteel fashion our continental neighbours will pitch theirs.
Visit any small town in France and Spain and you will see a group of chain-smoking men huddled around their boules.
For me it is quintessential Basque Country https://tourism.euskadi.eus/en/.
I dipped my toe in the French side of Basqueland on a thalassotherapy and cultural trip to Biarritz https://tourisme.biarritz.fr/en and Water way to go in Biarritz.
While my earliest holiday memories, even before Uwe and Menorca were in family-friendly Santander.
I’m noticing that the Scottish Bowls Championships still look to be on from Sunday, July 26-Saturday, August 1 in Ayr.
So, if I practise hard enough here in North Berwick, the Biarritz of the North http://north-berwick.co.uk and www.visitscotland.com.
Although as the Scary One will be quick to remind me I am not the bowler in my family.
Full with child (the Son and Heir) she took me down on the lawns of Blackpool in the north-west of England.
