The silver lining for Canberra's declining bowls clubs

But help has come from an unexpected direction as Canberrans and businesses increasingly use bowls clubs for functions, parties or just a quiet drink on a Saturday afternoon.

Tuggeranong Vikings Lawn Bowls president Dale Budnick said across the ACT there were about a dozen clubs remaining, a number of which had been bought out by larger clubs to stay afloat.

He said Deakin Hellenic Bowling Club had been the latest to vanish, shutting down recently.

"In the men's club we have between 150-160 members - we've gained a few extra this year but it's been on the slide generally for five to 10 years. We had 250 members a few years ago," Mr Budnick said.

Mr Budnick said the golden age of ACT lawn bowls was probably about 12 years ago.

ACT Rugby Union Club general manager Jeremy Wilcox, whose organisation merged with the Turner Bowling Club earlier this year, said there had been a noticeable drop in the number of bowls club members.

But he said while membership was declining, clubs had seen a rise in the number of groups coming in to bowl casually with a few mates or over a beer.

"Members still bowl here three days a week but we're also organising social bowls," Mr Wilcox said. "It's happening - we're flat out at the moment with Christmas parties and groups of friends turning up to bowl.

"[Now] it's the festive season, you'd expect that, but it has been happening for six months now."

The Canberra North Bowling Club merged with the rugby club and Mr Wilcox said the combined membership was about 9000.

"It's fair to say that the bowling club need the rugby union club to supply members and the rugby union club needed some space to grow. So it worked out well," he said.

Canberra Bowling Club president David Kimber said membership had remained steady at about 130 people, as bowlers from clubs which had closed down came to join theirs.

He said his was one of only two bowling clubs left in Canberra that weren't part of a larger organisation.

"We have only got one aim and that's to remain a lawn bowling club and we've been pretty successful with that over the last few years, particularly taking advantage of the interest in corporate bowls," Mr Kimber said.

Mr Kimber said they would receive about 50 per cent of their annual revenue in the six weeks leading up to Christmas. "That sustains us for the remainder of the year," he said.

All club presidents said the real costs from running a bowling club were maintaining the greens, which costs huge sums of money annually.

"The greens are very expensive to maintain and you need to generate enough money from the clubs and other revenue to cover those costs," Mr Wilcox said.

"Grass is expensive."

Mr Kimber said lawn bowlers had grown up with the idea that it doesn't cost very much to play lawn bowls. "They'll start to moan if you try to up their green fees by a dollar or two," he said.

Despite the stereotype of retirees as being the only people interested in playing lawn bowls, Mr Budnick said the ACT had a strong contingent of junior bowlers.

"If you look at any bowls on TV all the big names are probably under 25, all the Australian level and young people," he said. "We have a couple of juniors here and the ACT has a strong junior contingent who then play at the representative level across state level and Australia level."

Mr Wilcox also said stereotypes of senior citizens being the only bowls club members weren't accurate.

"If you look at the Australian bowls team and the representative bowls team they're all under 45, so it's actually a game that is regenerating itself and is not only for the elderly," he said.

"The participation rates show you that bowling is really for anybody. We had our open day last weekend and the biggest amount of people bowling were kids."

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly called the Canberra North Bowling Club the Capital Bowling Club and stated it had bought out the ACT Rugby Union Club. The two clubs merged.