Lawn bowls is a sport rarely associated with excruciating pain.

But on a small green in Cloncurry in the outback of north-western Queensland, Shayne Barwick is fast learning that bowls, when played as an endurance sport, is anything but gentle.

Barwick was about 50 hours through a world record attempt of 73 hours of near-continuous bowling when he spoke with Guardian Australia on Sunday morning.

Mate, I am in that much pain you would not believe.

“Mate, I am in that much pain you would not believe,” Barwick said. “I get a 10 minute break every four hours, I’ve had a massage and now I’m getting back into it,” he said.

Barwick’s world record attempt is founded on not a lot of practice and even less research. Believing the previous world record was 73 hours, he set that as his mark. But Barwick had confused a bowler’s age, 73, with the duration of his effort.

He decided 73 hours was as good a time as any, and pushed on. Barwick could have stopped by now and still set the world record.

“I could but I’m not going to,” he said. “I hope this thing is upheld for years on end, I don’t want anyone else to go through this.”

Barwick is the manager of the Cloncurry Bowls Club, a struggling business he says has lost the community it was supposed to serve.

That’s one of the purposes of Barwick’s attempt. He hopes his world record, which he describes now as a “stupid idea”, will bring the community back, and show younger residents that it’s not just a place for older people.

“I’m big on communities, I just want to get the community involved back into their club,” he said.



The support so far has been strong. Barwick always has to be playing against someone for the record to be achieved, and has had no problem finding competitors from a town of less than 3,000 people.

He is expected to continue bowling until Monday morning.