A decade ago, a 14-year-old boy with a flowing mullet might have been an unusual sight on a bowling green.
But Club Dubbo's youngest player, Cooper Dart, is developing a reputation as a formidable opponent.
"Normally everyone expects it's an old person's sport, but there's a lot of young people getting into it," Cooper said.
"It's a fun game, the people are nice and it's simple to get a hang of it."
Cooper has tasted success at the national level, too — his New South Wales team won gold at the Australian schools competition in September.
He also one of hundreds of juniors changing the face the of the sport.
"Our sport is trending younger all the time," Bowls Australia's Chris Wallace said.
Mr Wallace said the overall number of people playing competitive bowls has been declining, but the number of juniors playing regularly has increased by 25 per cent since 2010 to more than 1,000 across Australia.
Casual players in school programs have doubled from 15,000 participants in 2010 to 31,000 in 2021.
Three generations on the green
Social bowls is also growing in popularity, which is what first sparked Cooper's interest in the sport.
He played the barefoot version of the game as a 10-year-old while visiting his grandad in Forster.
Upon returning to his home town of Tomingley, population 330, he began travelling the 100-kilometre round trip to Dubbo to attend his nearest bowling club.
Since then, Cooper has managed to persuade both his mum and dad to get into the sport.
"Every now and again we get to have a game with the three of us — it's good to have three generations out on the bowling rink," Cooper's dad Gavin Dart said.
"In our first year here at the club we managed to win the minor pair championships — it was a pretty big thrill to do that with your son."
Not just an 'old man's game'
Club Dubbo bowls manager Anthony Brown said Cooper was exactly the kind of promising young talent he was desperate to scout.
Mr Brown, who played for NSW in the national disability championships, said different demographics were actively being targeted.
"Going back 20, 30 years ago, juniors were never heard of — it was basically an old man's game," he said.
"A lot of [kids] think lawn bowls is boring, but it's a game of skill and concentration."
Mr Wallace said there was as wealth of young talent coming out of regional Australia, including 25-year-old Goulburn woman Ellen Ryan, who won two gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
"She was winning the Australian open at 18, she won the Australian open at 20," he said.
"Some of our biggest names have come from country towns."
Mr Wallace said most of the Australian Jackaroos team started playing as under-18s, and most of the players in the national development squad were younger than 25.
