Humble duo notch up a century of lawn bowling at Glasshouse

THERE are many athletes in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland who are committed to their craft, but 90-year-old lawn bowlers Jack Timm and Joy Reason may be the most committed in the region.

Jack has been playing lawn bowls at the Glasshouse Country Bowls Club for 41 years and Joy has been playing at the club for 9 years, however, has been playing lawn bowls for 30 years.

About 16 years ago, the club renamed their green after Jack Timm for his longlasting membership at the club, not to mention being the greens groundsman for eight years. Jack was humble speaking about the honour.

“I don’t know why they named it after me, I used to help the club a lot, I don’t do a lot of help anymore,” Jack said.

Joy started playing lawn bowls as well as golf, in Victoria, when she was competitive bowls. The social bowls is alright, everyone’s got to learn especially the new ones, but I still like competitive bowls,” Joy said.

20. However, now she just plays bowls and this may be her last year playing competitively.

Both Jack and Joy still to this day love playing lawn bowls and love the community of the sport.

“I’ve played bowls for so long because I’ve always loved playing bowls, it’s a great game and no matter whether you win or lose as long as you are happy,”

Jack said.

“I love the game, I just love how it keeps me young and it’s nice being outdoors, it doesn’t matter how hot it gets I still enjoy it,” Joy said.

“I just love life and I’m in my twilight through over the years, and how etiquette is not how it used to be.

“It’s a different game from when I first started. The bowls used to be different shapes and you would bowl up the middle, and the bowls used to be black but now they come in different colours,” Jack said.

“There’s also a lot more skill to the game now compared to when I started.”

“Our uniforms used to be all white and now it’s all changed to colour, but the etiquette has gone out the window, people don’t stand on the bank when you are bowling anymore,” Joy said.

Joy urged seniors to try out the sport even if you feel like you might not be able to do it, as she said its inclusive for all bowlers nowadays.

“Older people should give bowls a go, they’ve got a lot of aids now to help people if they’ve got bad backs. There’s aids where you don’t have to bend down, like Jack, he uses a stick,” she said.

“When people who are older join, they say later ‘we should have joined earlier’.”

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