Barefoot lawn bowling

I've been delinquent in my postings--sorry!

Last Sunday I had a lovely afternoon with work friends at the Clovelly Bowling Club, playing Aussie-style lawn bowling. How to describe?

First, the scene: the club is on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean (between Bondi and Coogee Beaches). It was a gorgeous day: sunny and windy with beautiful air and light making the well-groomed lawns a beautiful sight. And yes, most of us were barefoot.

The game is sort of like the Italian Bocce--there is a small white ball that is tossed out, and the goal is to get the larger, black balls as close as possible to the white ball. Only, unlike Bocce, the balls are not spherical and are unevenly weighted, causing them to wobble and curve as they roll. None of us had any experience playing, so we had fun being goofy and clueless about where our balls would end up.

Each round is scored by counting the number of balls that the team with the closest ball to the white one have within the radius created by the closest ball of the losing team. My team was winning handily until we stopped for a "barbie," after which the other team caught up and ended up ahead as the light faded.

I then topped of the day with a walk along the water to Coogee and a freezing wait for the darn bus home.