THERE’S nothing like some fast and furious sporting action to get the juices flowing at 9am on a Friday morning - and some might say that the sight of the Jersey triples bowls team taking on the Norfolk Islands in a leafy Glasgow suburb is nothing like some fast and furious sporting action. I suspect the portly spectator desperately wrestling with the Times cryptic crossword about six feet from the action would probably have agreed.

In many ways, the presence of lawn bowls on the Commonwealth Games programme panders to those who would decry the event as little more than a glorified summer fete. One guy playing for Papua New Guinea, who must have been well into in his 60s, carried a metal contraption that enabled him to pick up his bowls without having to stretch to the floor because you suspect he wouldn’t have made it. Now that’s my type of sportsman.

There’s also something distinctly colonial about watching the home nation’s bowlers hammer a succession of tiny African and Caribbean nations in the opening rounds. Shut your eyes, and you could easily be back in the days of Empire, with the viceroy schooling the natives in the sophisticated art of bowling before retiring to his drawing room for a gin and tonic. To some, that sums up the Commonwealth Games in an instant.

Yet to dismiss lawn bowls as an antiquated sub-section of an antiquated Games is to ignore the great variety and contrasts that make the sporting world so absorbing.

In an environment in which style generally triumphs over substance, with Twenty20 cricket pushing the Test game increasingly towards the periphery and Premier League football in England casting all other sporting activities into the shadows, there’s something reassuring about the sight of ten different bowls games meandering their way towards a conclusion overlooked by the Victorian splendour of Kelvingrove Art Gallery.

Every major Games tends to have a showcase setting away from the main stadia, and just as London’s decision to stage the beach volleyball tournament in Horse Guards Parade was inspired, so the organisers of Glasgow 2014 have hit the jackpot by taking the bowls to Kelvingrove.

To the left, the leafy lanes of Kelvin Way, one of Glasgow’s most salubrious neighbourhoods. In the distance, it’s impossible to miss the spires of Glasgow University, one of the city’s most austere and prestigious institutions. And there right behind the action towers the Art Gallery, which was financed by the proceeds of the 1888 International Exhibition, held in Kelvingrove Park.

This is how Glasgow wants the world to see it – grand, artistic and rooted in history – and the genteel setting is the perfect accompaniment to the action on the greens, which will run throughout the duration of the Games programme.

That action yesterday morning featured a triples group game between England and Pakistan, with the former running out comfortable 24-9 winners to confirm their progression from the group stage.

For all that the bowls events might lack some of the bite of other Commonwealth disciplines, they’re still hugely competitive and, to those involved, they represent the very pinnacle of their sport.

It’s no coincidence that bowls feature a greater spread of nations than almost any other sport in Glasgow because it’s a game that lends itself to being played anywhere in the world. Win an Olympic gold medal at sailing, and you’re only beating countries that can afford to sail. Triumph in Commonwealth bowls, and you’ve come out on top of a pretty deep pool of players.

Given the sport’s popularity in England, it’s a decent achievement just to have made the team, so Wearsider Stuart Airey has already won one battle just by lining up in both the triples and fours.

Born in Sunderland, and introduced to bowls by his father, who played at Ashbrooke Sports Club, Airey relocated to Carlisle during his school years and took up the game seriously at Wigton.

He won a silver medal in Delhi four years ago, and feels privileged to be part of a Commonwealth tournament in Glasgow that is showcasing the sport in its very best light.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it,” he said. “The weather makes it, but the setting is absolutely fantastic and we’re very lucky to be able to play here.

“You just have to look around at the views, it’s incredible. Every Commonwealth Games is special because it’s such an important tournament in our sport, but this is something else.

“These Games are the biggest thing for us when they come around every four years, and I’d love to think I could be leaving here as a Commonwealth champion.”

The desire to avenge 2010’s final defeat to South Africa clearly burns bright, but bowls’ social nature means the sport is still able to live up to the Commonwealth tag of being the ‘Friendly Games’ even when the competition is at its most intense.

“We didn’t really know what to expect from the Pakistan lads, but once they started talking, it became clear they were all from just down the road in Glasgow,” said Airey. “We had a bit of decent banter with them, and they’ve given us a few tips for what to see in the city.” And what could be friendlier than that?