Preston Bowls excited to finally find a new home

When Lang's couldn't find a time slot for the Preston Bowls club to play at its community centre during the week this season, organizer Dave Allen was left scrambling to secure a location suitable for its players.

After an extensive search, Allen found the perfect fit alongside the Kitchener Minor Baseball Association in its new facility on Lawrence Street in Preston. 

"In the spring of this year I read about the purchase of the building and reached out to the KMBA to find out what they were doing," Allen said.

"The director and I corresponded and he suggested I come by when they had taken over the building. I met with him at the site in late August and again in September."

What resulted was an afternoon time slot on Wednesdays for a fee of just $5.

The facility has everything the club needs, including the ability to run two different bowling programs. 

Short mat bowls, which used to operate out of Lang's and the Kinbridge Community Centre, and an indoor program that sees participants play on a full length, 100-foot artificial surface will both be offered.

The indoor program had been playing out of the CORE recreation complex in Kitchener but was forced to fold when the facility was sold to Shark Sport Co. Now it'll operate on Tuesday afternoons inside the old EVON building.

The Ontario Lawn Bowling Association is divided into 16 district, with District 7 being comprised of players from Elmira, Elora, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. Allen said while most of the people that play short mat are from the district, the indoor program can draw players from as far away as Woodstock.

The other positive to the new facility is the ability to store equipment.

The short mats had been taking up space in a crammed storage room at Lang's, while the indoor program had to transport their equipment to and from the rec complex before and after each game.

With a new home and new season officially underway, Allen can turn his attention to the benefits the game provides the community, including for those with disabilities as he says the club finally has devices to aid in delivery and that can be easily adapted for wheelchairs, walkers and other devices.

"Short mat allows people to continue to participate in bowls which they will find as not only a recreational challenge but a social outing each week in the lawn bowl offseason," he said.

"We draw names for each game, so they're always playing with new team members. While the exercise is pretty mild, for some people it's a chance to get out at least one day a week and relieve some of the social isolation that many seniors must deal with."

Anyone interested in learning more about the game can contact [email protected].