We welcomed visitors from Poland interested in bowls to Liboc!

Polish Mission in Liboc!

Bowls is gaining more fans in Europe

Czech bowls is beginning to attract attention even beyond our borders, and our facility in Liboc, Prague, is naturally becoming a place where interested people from neighboring countries can get a firsthand look at the sport.

Recently, ČABOW received an email from Poland asking whether it would be possible to visit Liboc, tour our facilities, discuss experiences with establishing a bowls association, and, of course, try bowls in person.

Although the deadline was very tight, the ČABOW leadership responded quickly and cooperatively, as such initiatives align perfectly with our efforts to promote bowls throughout the Central European region.

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, a group of five bowls enthusiasts from a small town near Poznań, led by the town’s mayor himself, arrived in Liboc.

Representing the ČABOW Executive Board, the meeting was attended by Karel Šturm, Libor Svatoň, and Jaroslav Novák; Tonda Parma arrived as a technical expert, and Radek Nečas also offered a helping hand. Ivo Hadrava and Marek Sedlák from the company Pro Bowls presented options for acquiring bowls equipment and the promising prospects of indoor short-mat bowls.

The Polish guests certainly did not come “blindly”—some of them already had specific experience with bowls, so a number of often very technical questions were asked. They were most interested in our beginnings, the actual costs of building and operating outdoor lanes, and the financial demands of providing a high-quality indoor game, including the short-mat variant, which is ideal for smaller halls and multifunctional sports facilities.

We openly shared all our experiences—from the very first steps to the current operation of the Liboc facility, including what has proven successful under our conditions and what has not. They weren’t always pleased with the numbers or the information provided, but it is precisely this realistic picture that helps other interested parties plan the development of bowls in their regions. Our Polish friends then spent the remaining time playing the game—at first just among themselves, and later together with us.

Now the ball—or rather, the bowls ball—is on the Polish side. We believe that a Polish flag will soon appear on the bowls map and that Liboc and ČABOW will be seen as the place where Central European bowls projects and partnerships are born.

If that were to happen, some of us would surely dust off the memory of ČABOW as the “Cannon of Central European bowls”…