IT’S not every day that you find a teenage boy hooked on playing lawn bowls. But 17-year-old Keeden McGuire is happy to lead the way.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Originally from Dubbo, Keeden started playing the sport from the age of 12 after his dad encouraged him and his brother to give it a go. Since then he has never looked back.
“I used to be a bit scared to tell people I played bowls,” Keeden admits.
“I guess people see it as an older person’s sport. But I don’t care. Now I just tell people.
“I really enjoy it. I love the competitiveness and I like meeting new people from other clubs.”
Keeden initially joined the Tuncurry Bowling Club when his family moved to the Great Lakes less than 12 months ago.
But after being offered a green keepers’ apprenticeship at the Forster Bowling Club earlier this year, he made the switch to a new club.
“I used to be a bit scared to tell people I played bowls. I guess people see it as an older person’s sport. But I don’t care. Now I just tell people."
- Keeden McGuire
“I was really happy to have got it. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I like the outdoors and you get to know the greens,” he said.
Keeden along with 16-year-old Alex Hicks are the two youngest members of the Forster club and recently took part in the club’s major singles event.
Round one of the major singles kicked off on Friday, April 4. One round a week for seven weeks will be played until the competition wraps up in mid May. Although Keeden has already been knocked out of the competition his playing potential has not gone unnoticed according to Forster Bowling Club’s bowls coordinator Tim Farrell.
“Keeden has a lot of potential as a player and is a good kid.
“The major singles was his first championship with this club.
“It is considered to be a blue ribbon event. This year we have 64 entries. So whoever wins this will go on to regionals.”
Tim, who is also a young player, said the sport was shedding its traditional image with more and more youthful faces present on local greens.
“We started out with one young player in our club now there are about three of us,” he said.
Keeden is encouraging young locals to give the game of bowls a go as it is: “better than you think.”
“Just give it a go. You’re not going to get injured in this sport. That’s what I always looked at when I signed up to it,” he said.
“There’s good prize money involved and there is a lot of enjoyment and fun to get out of it.”