Rules on how to play the Lawn Bowls Game
Lawn Bowls is a precision sport where the goal is to roll slightly radially asymmetrical balls (called lawn bowls) closer to a smaller white ball (called the Jack) than one's opponent is able to do.
The Lawn Bowls game is usually played on a large, rectangular, precisely levelled and manicured grass or synthetic surface known as a bowling green, but an indoor variation on carpet is also played.
Lawn Bowls is a popular game in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and parts of the USA.
Because of its relaxed pace and comparatively light physical demands, Lawn Bowls is a popular participant sport, particularly for the elderly.
However, there is a considerable professional competition dominated by younger men and women.
Protection of the Lawn Bowls Green
To protect the surface of the Green, Bowlers should:
- wear flat and smooth footwear or no shoes/barefoot
- avoid sitting on the edge of the bank, or otherwise submiting the green near the edge of the ditch to foot pressure
- never run on the green
- release the lawn bowls close to the green surface and avoid dumping of your lawn bowls.
Placing a Mat
The Mat provides a base for delivering the jack and lawn bowls.
It provides some protection against local wear and tear of the green surface.
Players may not relocate the mat during an end, but may straighten it or temporarily lift it to allow a lawn bowl from adjacent rink to pass.
Lawn bowls size and Bias
A lawn bowl is about twice the diameter and six time the weight of a Jack. Lawn bowls are designed to travel a curved path, referred to as bias, and was originally produced by inserting weights to one side of the bowl.
This is no longer permitted by the rules and bias is now produced entirely by the shape of the bowl.
A bowler can recognise the bias direction of the bowl in his hand by a dimple or symbol on one side.
Regulations determine minimum and maximum curvature characteristics allowed, but within these rules bowlers can and do choose lawn bowls to suit their own preference.
Rules of the Lawn Bowls Game
In the simplest Lawn Bowls Game, singles, one of the two opponents begins a segment of the competition (in bowling parlance, an "end"), by placing the mat and rolling the jack to the other end of the green as a target.
Once it has come to rest, the players take turns to roll their lawn bowls from the mat towards the jack and thereby build up the "head".
Lawn bowls reaching the ditch are dead and removed from play, except in the event when one has "touched" the jack on its way.
"Touchers" are marked with chalk and remain alive in play even though they are in the ditch.
Similarly if the jack is knocked into the ditch it is still alive unless it is out of bounds to the side resulting in a "dead end" which is replayed.
After each competitor has delivered all of their lawn bowls (four each in singles), the distance of the closest lawn bowls to the jack is determined (the jack may have been displaced) and points are awarded for each lawn bowl which a competitor has closer than the opponent's nearest to the jack.
For instance, if a competitor has bowled two lawn bowls closer to the jack than their competitor's nearest, they are awarded two points.
The exercise is then repeated for the next end.
Particularly in Lawn Bowls team competition there can be a large number of lawn bowls on the green towards the conclusion of the end, and this gives rise to complex tactics.
Teams "holding shot" with the closest lawn bowl will often make their subsequent shots not with the goal of placing the lawn bowl near the jack, but in positions to make it difficult for opponents to get their lawn bowls into the head, or to places where the jack might be deflected to if the opponent attempts to disturb the head.
Lawn Bowls Delivery
When playing Lawn bowls there are several types of delivery.
"Draw" shots are those where the lawn bowl is rolled to a specific location without causing too much disturbance of lawn bowls already in the head.
For a right-handed bowler, "forehand draw" is initially aimed to the right of the jack, and curves in to the left.
The same bowler can deliver a "backhand draw" by turning the lawn bowl over in his hand and curving it the opposite way, from left to right.
In both cases, the lawn bowl is rolled as close to the jack as possible, unless tactics demand otherwise.
A "drive" involves bowling with considerable force with the aim of knocking either the jack or a specific lawn bowl out of play - and with the drive's speed, there is virtually no noticeable curve on the shot.
An "upshot" or "yard on" shot involves delivering the lawn bowl with an extra degree of weight, enough to displace the jack or disturb other lawn bowls in the head without killing the end.
The challenge in all these shots is to be able to adjust line and length accordingly, the faster the delivery, the narrower the line or "grass".
For more info on Rules of the Lawn Bowls Game please contact our lawn bowls coach.
To download PDF files on lawn bowls accuracy, lawn bowls aiming, lawn bowls delivery, lawn bowls practice, lawn bowls skipping, lawn bowls tactics, lawn bowls rules and lawn bowls techniques:
lawn bowls self coaching.
Bookings to play a game of Lawn Bowls at Gladesville Sporties can be scheduled with Ron Collyer on (02) 9807 2328.
