introduction to the game of bowls
The Bowls Development Alliance [BDA] commissioned a video for people like yourself who are thinking of playing bowls. The video includes all of the formats of bowls including our own crown green bowls....don't worry there's no requirments to wear 'whites' in our game. Just click on the image below to go to the video
how to play bowls
Firstly there is probably a need to make the distinction between the game of lawn bowls and the game called crown green bowls. The former is played either outdoors or indoors on a perfectly level area of manicured grass or carpet...you will perhaps have seen this form of the game on the television recently.
We play crown green bowls and as the name suggests the surface we play on is not flat...in fact it is far from that at times. No two crown greens are the same and while a flat green bowler usually only has to consider the speed that the bowl is travelling we have to take in to account all the humps and hollows and camber of a green that falls away from its centre.
The game is played between two people in singles, two pairs in doubles or even three and four pairs but this is not usual. Normally you will play against an opponent with each of you having two bowls...also called woods because they were originally and can still be made from the hardwood lignum vitae. There is also a smaller bowl termed jack or block which is the target you are aiming to get as near to as possible with your bowls. The objective of the game is score 21 points before you opponent can. To do this you get points for being the nearest with your wood or woods....sounds simple doesn't it, well it is really.
first to 21 points wins...simples!
Either yourself or opponent with roll the jack out over the green and taking it in turns you both have roll your bowls to the jack along the same line that the jack took. In principle if you do this you should get your bowls near to the target jack and score some points...but it doesn't always work like that. The skill of the game is in reading the shape of the land that the bowls travel over as well as the speed of the green...remember that the green is higher in the middle and falls away to the edges thus exagerating the curvature in the line of the bowl you roll out.
Bowls are not perfectly round nor are they symmetrical...one side of the bowl is slightly flatter which makes the bowl turn or curve with a bias towards the heavier rounder side. The faster the bowl travels the less it curves but as the it slows down the effect of gravity causes the bowl to curve more. This means you can use the bias of the bowl to increase the effect of the crown of the green or to straighten the line of the bowl by acting against the slope. Experience and knowledge of the green will help you judge the line you need to roll your bowl along.
In essence that is all there is to it. There are of course more rules but you don't need to know them yet and they are only used to help you and your opponent play the game.