Several members of SHWFC decided on 25 June to expand their sporting knowledge a bit and, courtesy of Coach John Davies, try their hand at another game - Crown Green Bowls.

John is a member at Haydock Cricket & Bowls Club and secured the green for us whilst the focus of many club members was on a 1st XI match next door. Under his tuition we were introduced to the mysteries of bias, 'thumb' and 'finger' and the fact that what we were playing on was NOT a flat service.

Now, when you watch this sort of thing on the TV the bowls end up closely to the jack and measurement is tight as to who has 'won' an end and whether they have got 1 ball 'in' or two. For us inexperienced walking football-ites if our bowl ended up anywhere within a metre of the jack you could be reasonably sure you were on to a winner.

Plenty of us struggled with remembering about the bias, with quite a few 'which way does it turn again, John ?' type questions. And the lack of flat surface (the clue is in the name Crown!) meant many of us had our bowls falling foul of the slope at the edges and ending up in the ditch.

The honourable exceptions to the above were Steve 'Clint' Eastwood who bought his own shiny orange bowls and also Dave 'Grazer' Clark, who we were all really chuffed to see out and about again after his radiotherapy treatment.

It was a great fun, we all had a happy afternoon and the weather behaved itself. I suspect it won't be the last time we try our hand at Bowls, so many thanks to John Davies and well bowled everyone!