Sport
A life in bowls has its rewards for Brunswick stalwart
Veteran Ian Ewing has been nominated for Victorian sport’s coach of the year award
Mark Phillips
LAWN bowls is a genuine family affair for Brunswick Bowling Club’s Ian ‘JR’ Ewing.
After taking up bowls in his mid-20s, Ewing introduced his father to the sport. His son and daughter have both played and after much convincing to also bowl, his wife is also now a regular for Brunswick.
The next generation has not been neglected either, with four grandchildren celebrating their first birthday at a bowls club.
For the past five years, bowls has not been just a hobby for Ewing but also his job.
Along with being employed as full-time coach of the Victorian team, Ewing, 63, is also the state’s pathway coach within Bowls Australia’s high performance program.
Last year he was joint winner of Bowls Australia’s coach of the year award.
He has coached Australians to multiple Oceanic titles and in between he has coached and played in the Brunswick squad to be runner-up in Section 1 of Division 1 in the Victorian Metro Pennant competition in 2023-24 before stepping down from the role at the start of last season.
But his crowning achievement as a coach was overseeing Samantha Atkinson and Ray Pearse representing Australia to win the World Bowls Indoor Championships mixed pairs title at Guernsey last year.
For all of this, he has been nominated as one of four finalists for Vicsport’s Coach of the Year award which will be announced on Wednesday night.
The nomination was a pleasant surprise for Ewing, who describes taking up coaching full-time about five years ago as one of the best decisions of his life.
“I’m approaching retirement age and started this role in my mid-50s, and it came at a good time in that regard,” he said.
“I’d just had a quadruple bypass as well, so it really wasn’t my ambition to be working in transport much after that, and this position popped up.
“I just wish this position came along about 15 years before .”
“That is the magic of it [lawn bowls], there is a place for everyone.”
Ewing took up bowls in his mid-20s, initially at the Preston club after he and a mate both decided they wanted to play another sport instead of cricket.
He was hooked almost immediately and had an illustrious career as a player, including representing Victoria 150 times, before he was appointed state coach on a part-time basis about a decade ago while still working in transport and logistics.
About eight years ago, Ewing was recruited as head coach of the Brunswick club in Victoria Street.
In his final season as coach, the club finished on top of the Division 1 Men’s ladder at the end of the home and away season, but was defeated by Flemington Kensington in the grand final. He continues to play for Brunswick when he can in between his state and national coaching commitments.
Ewing is drawn to bowls by its inclusiveness.
“The beauty of the sport is, especially at a domestic level, you can play until you can’t, basically, so there’s always a level that you can slot yourself into,” Ewing said.
“It doesn’t matter what your motivation is: whether it’s to have a couple of beers socially with a group of mates and play an independent competition on the Saturday … or that 80-year-old bloke who just wants to get out there and get some get some steps up on a Saturday afternoon; or blokes or women coming out of another sport in their late ‘30s, ‘40s, and just looking for that next challenge; to the 10-year-old kid that watched it on TV and thinks they wouldn’t mind having a go.
“That is the magic of it, there is a place for everyone.”
The Brunswick connection came about partly because Ewing’s father, Peter, played at the club.
In a reversal of normal practice, it was the son who introduced the father to bowls. Towards the end of Peter’s life, they both played together at Brunswick.
In his coaching role, which is co-funded by Bowls Victoria and Bowls Australia, Ewing looks after all the state teams and also manages the national high performance program for Victorian based members of the Australian squad.
The latter role includes not only the technical aspects of bowling, but – working with the Victorian and Australian institutes of sport – the fitness, diet and mental well-being for a squad of 13 able-bodied and para athletes, aged between 17 and 30.
Over almost four decades of involvement, Ewing has seen many changes in a sport that has become semi-professional over that time.
“As a player, when I was first starting, it was just finding a nice place to go and relax and have a game of sport and it did enough to tick off the competitive urge as a player,” he said.
“It just sort of evolved all the way and as I got better my ambition and my expectations all grew, and I was able to develop as a player and get some success at that level.
“You get to a stage where you want to pass some of that knowledge base on to those coming through so your club can be successful.
“And then from that identify as someone that may be able to offer some value in the HP [high performance] team. And so I was able to then progress to that level.”
Ewing’s passion for bowls is contagious, and his family have all caught the bug.
Son Ryan played bowls until commitments with a young family forced him to take a break, while daughter Carly recently took up the sport and competed at the Victorian novice championships in Shepparton this year.
Wife Denise was a tougher convert who resisted bowling for many years but now plays at Brunswick.
None of the grandchildren are old enough to play bowls yet, but Ewing is working on that as well.
“Four of them have had their first birthdays in a bowling club,” he said.
Ewing is contracted to continue as part of the national coaching team until the next Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2026, and will keep playing bowls and sharing his knowledge to younger players until he is no longer physically able to.
“It gives me a bit of a buzz to watch the young ones and see what’s on the horizon for the future,” he said.
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