Creativity and Lawn Bowls

Can you see a link between the two? Creativity is letting your mind go free and come up with new things, it is seeing new links, making connections you've never thought of before.

I was playing lawn bowls this morning, and I feel I had moved into new territory. When my skipper showed me, from the other end of the rink, what she wanted me to do with my bowl, I stepped onto the mat and imagined the shot I would have to perform, where my bowl would end up, and what the result would be.

Previously, I've gone through this process, or to be more truthful, I have tried to go through this process, only to end up with a pathetic attempt at it that leads to nothing good.

But today, on the mat, it all happened. I put the bowl exactly where my skip wanted it. We'll ignore all of my other bowls of the day, some of which were good, some OK, some terrible. This one bowl was just perfect. It takes many more bowls than just one perfect one to win a game. You have to imagine you are getting somewhere, otherwise your bad shots will bring you down and perhaps lead you to leaving the game of bowls.

The skipper has to have knowledge, but also imagination, to be able to know what needs to be done from the other end of the rink. The team members all have to imagine a result that leads them to working at making their game better, bowl after bowl, hour after hour, week after week.

There's also the fun of deciding what to blame when the bowl doesn't go where you wanted it to go. The wind, the green, the moron in the rink next to you who stood in exactly the wrong spot and so ruined your concentration.

And if you decide the fault was yours, you have to have the creativity to see beyond your failure, to the glorious time in the future when every shot will be the best shot, and you and your team will be the winners!

It's a funny old game, lawn bowls.