Bowling Club

glossary

 

The game is played across large areas of England and therefore has many different terms and sayings peculiar to specific regions which can lead to some confusion when one first starts bowling.  This glossary hopefully will shed a little light on the varied and at times more diverse terms and phrases we use.

 

 

21 Up                            A game where the first to 21 points wins

31 Up                            A game where the first to 31 points wins

All But                           Shouted when you or your opponent reaches a score one short of winning the game

Bias                               The direction the wood will turn-in, achieved by shaping the bowl in it's manufacture

Block                             The small yellow thing you throw out first and then try to get your woods near to (see Jack)

Block land                     Heard when your wood follows the exact same trajectory as the jack

Blocker                         A wood bowled to a position in front of the head that restricts your opponent's bowl (see Bobby)

Bobby                            A wood bowled to a position in front of the head that restricts your opponent's bowl (see Blocker)

Bowl, a                          The larger round thing one sends trying to get close to the smaller yellow thing (see Wood)

Bowling                        The act of sending your wood or the jack using an underarm pendulum action

Cabbage patch              A green that is rough and therefore a bugger to bowl, if one loses one obviously blames the green

Carry your wood, to     When you don't bowl your wood for it to count

Cast                               To bowl your wood or the jack

Cobble                           To send the bowl so that it rolls awkwardly end-over-end and not smoothly on its running-sole

Cobber                          Someone who stands upright and throws their woods bouncing them from the hip (see Hip Chucker)

Cobbling                       When one Cobs a wood or the jack

Crown                           The highest point of the green, usually its middle though a green may have more than one crown

Edge                             The sides of the green which are usually straight (see Side)

Finger peg                    The bias that will send the wood turning-in towards the middle of your body

Firing                           Bowling your wood at such speed that the bias is negated

Footer                           The small round rubber thing you stand on as you bowl (see Mat)

Fortress, the                 Peculiar to our club, an elderly gentleman who continually winds people up especially on Facebook

Full-house                     Score in doubles matches where all 4 points are won by one side, signalled by demonic twirling of an arm

Hip chucker                  Someone who stand upright and throws their woods bouncing them from the hip (see Cobber)

Isle of Mann                  Score in doubles matches where 3 points are won by one side, signalled by standing on one leg arms out

Jack                               The small yellow thing you throw out first and then try to get your woods near to (see Block)

Jack high                      A wood that finishes the same length as the jack and usually next to it (see Jack high)

Jack length                   A wood that finishes the same length as the jack and usually next to it (see Jack length)

Land                              The trajectory which the jack follows when you send it

Length, a                      19m which is the minimum length you must send the jack for it to be a legal mark

Mat                                The small round rubber thing you stand on as you bowl (see Footer)

Measures                      The things used to settle disagreements about which wood is closer to the jack (see Tapes)

Narrow as a carrot       A wood following a line that has not borrowed enough land and will therefore be under the jack land

Nineteen                       Your or your opponents score when 19 is reached funnily enough

Nowt fer short!             Usually shouted by some old gammer to describe a bowl you sent that is falling short and of no use

On                                  Heard to identify whose wood is closest to the jack

Peggy mark                   A piece of land where the jack and woods will turn a significant amount, usually over the crown

Postage Stamp              A small green, usually heard from our opponents when they come to our green

Sending                         To bowl either your wood or the jack (see Cast)

Setting a mark              Sending the block to a legal length and keeping it on the green

Seventeen                     You our your opponents score when 17 is reached funnily enough, used in doubles matches

Side                                The edges of the green which are usually straight (see Edge)

Straight mark                A piece of land where the jack and woods will follow a near straight line, usually the sides

Tapes                              The things used to settle disagreements about which ood si closer to the jack (see Measures)

Thumb peg                     The bias that will send the wood turning-away from the middle of your body

Toucher, a                      A sent wood that rests against the jack, rare as rocking-horse stuff

Turning-over                  Sending your wood the opposite to what the jack was sent

Wood                               The larger round thing one sends trying to get close to the smaller yellow thing (see A Bowl)

Yard long                        Heard when you send your wood past the jack, every long wood is a yard long!

Yard short                      Heard when you send your wood understrength and short of the jack, every short wood is a yard short!