GOD is a bowler.
He is also probably Glaswegian, but most of his fellow citizens already know that. He dispensed his beneficence magnificently in a hallowed part of the city yesterday. The Kelvingrove Art Gallery in its elegant beauty stood over the Elysian fields that had been reserved for a collection of mere mortals to indulge in a sport of accuracy, technique and strategy. The sun was in the skies, God was in his heaven and the Commonwealth Games began with a jarring klaxon that signalled the start of the bowling.
This, however, was no God's waiting room. Bowls has been maligned as a game for old people played in few territories. It is, instead, a sport with an increasingly youthful profile and a gathering list of countries joining the international organisation. "It is 51-strong now," said Patrick Hulbert, editor of Bowls International magazine. "Turkey has just joined."
Hulbert also pointed out that the oldest player in the English team was Ellen Falkner and restricted himself to the gentlemanly observation that she was in her "mid-thirties". He also threw in the statistic that the Australian men's bowls squad was on average younger than the cricket team.
This march of the young brigade was visible on the greens of Kelvingrove. The wonder of bowls has stretched, too, to Niue and the Norfolk Islands in the South Pacific. The latter islands managed to come up with a women's four that could beat South Africa 17-13.
Their amiable and slightly stunned press attache informed me that contrary to Wiki assertions there were only 1300 inhabitants on the Norfolk Islands and about 50 of them played bowls. Ten of them are competing at the Commonwealth Games. South Africa, in contrast, has 26,000 registered bowlers.
Nuie is another small island with a big story. It is a self-governing state with an association with New Zealand, meaning most of its diplomatic relations and other matters are handled in Wellington. It also has a population of 1300 souls and four of them spent the morning being beaten by Malaysia.
Hina Elizabeth Rereiita, who will contest the singles, watched her countrywomen lose but was positive about the scope for growth in her island. "It is a very popular sport," she said. "Everyone on the island plays it though we only have one green."
Her first impressions on Scotland bordered on the ecstatic with her interest further piqued by the Scottish terriers that led the teams into Celtic Park at the opening ceremony. "I would love to smuggle one back," she said with a smile.
Jade Posimani, 21, one of the women's four who tasted defeat in the round robin, believes that her first trip to Europe will not be her last. "It is an incredible adventure, very exciting," she said of Glasgow 2014. "It's all very new to me but I find it very idyllic. I have been blown away by the Games and Scotland.
"I want to take my bowls career further now we have the resources at home to do so. We are learning more about international." But she added: "Bowls is a relatively new sport for us and we definitely have a lot of young people coming in."
The sport, of course, is deeply traditional in a Scotland that still smarts from the bowling Flodden that was Delhi 2010.
Its popularity could be gauged by the cheers and comments from the knowledgeable crowd. Its strength as a national sport was obvious, especially when David Peacock, Neil Speirs and Darren Burnett secured a 27-6 triples triumph over Indian trio Kamal Kumar Sharma, Sunil Bahadur and Samit Malhotra.
Peacock said the players had been inspired by the events at Celtic Park. "Even if we didn't get home till midnight and had to be up at 6am, going to the opening ceremony was a big help to us," he said. "We woke up this morning still on a high."
As high as the very heaven that was Kelvingrove yesterday.
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