Irish road bowlers have nothing on the forgotten potshare bowlers of England | Letter

Read more on post.

Regarding your article (‘Same magic’: ancient Irish road bowling has been revived by TikTok, drones and Bill Murray, 22 September), “Ware the bool” was a shout regularly heard on the Blackfell at Gateshead, on the Town Moor at Newcastle, on Newbiggin Moor or on Blyth beach in the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th. It was the cry to warn people that a potshare bowl (made of whinstone and weighing up to 50 ounces, or about 1.4kg) might be about to lay waste to their lower legs, having been thrawn, hoyed or houghed (propelled) by a “hardy knight of the black diamond” (pitman).

I doubt that the hardy knights would have been impressed by the Irish lads using 28-ounce bowls and nor does the length of “hoy” look much more than about 80 metres. Geordie potshare “boolers” were used to nine “thraws” to cover the mile course on the Town Moor.

What’s more, the Geordie lads did it in their underwear – their jackets and trousers being an encumbrance – on the Moor, in January, in the snow. Up to 6,000 would turn up and there was excitement, alcohol, gambling and, unsurprisingly, the occasional disagreement, sufficiently objectionable to the citizens that the council, which owned the land, banned potshare in 1880. That meant a substantial loss for Newcastle businesses (wives came from the coalfield to shop) and, according to a local newspaper, the “corporation held the fee simple of the soil, whilst the freemen were entitled to the grass and herbage”. All had business interests, now damaged. A compromise was reached and bowling resumed, but on a clearly defined course.

Matthew Rogerson of Fatfield – now within Washington – started “boolin” in 1863 and ended in 1899. He wasn’t a big star, but he was a dedicated potshare man.
Peter Welsh
Washington, Tyne and Wear