What is lawn bowls? All you need to know about the sport

India’s lawn bowls team made history when they won the women’s fours final match against South Africa 17-10, securing itself a historic first-ever medal at a 2022 Commonwealth Games, Birmingham. Lovely Choubey, Pinki Singh, Nayanmoni Saikia, and Rupa Rani Tirkey are India women’s fours team members.  

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Here is how the game of lawn bowls is played:

About lawn bowls:

Bowls, usually referred to as lawn bowls, is a game in which players roll bowls, which resemble almost-spherical balls with flattened edges and a weight bias, in the direction of jacks, which is a smaller ball with a round shape. On grass or artificial surfaces, and on flat (flat-green bowls) or convex (crown-green bowls) pitches. It can be played both inside and outside (greens).

Objective of the lawn bowls:

In order to win at lawn bowling, you must roll your bowls such that they land as close to the jack as you can. This means that at least one of your balls must be closer to the jack than any of your opponents’ balls.

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Dimensions of a green in lawn mowls:

Rinks are the various divisions of the green. Normally, the green is divided into six rinks, allowing six games to be played simultaneously. The rinks shall not be narrower than 4.3 metres or wider than 5.8 metres. In order to avoid having to alter greens for important tournaments, an ideal green width should be around 5m.

No. of players that can play the lawn bowls:

You can play singles, couples, triples, and even four-a-side in a game of lawn bowling.

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Rules of lawn bowls:

• A coin toss determines which player or team will bowl first. The lead bowler then places his or her mat and rolls the jack down the green.

• The jack is transported to the centre of the rink after it comes to rest and must travel at least 23 metres to be considered “in play.”

• Each bowl that is closer to the jack than the opponent’s closest bowl earns a point as the players alternate turns bowling.

• The play resumes in the opposite direction after an end (i.e. from the end at which the jack previously rested).

• However near the jack may be to the ditch, bowls that fall into the ditch are ignored unless they happen to touch the jack just before falling into the ditch. If they touch the jack, then they are still considered to be in play.

• Even if the jack is thrown into the ditch while remaining inside the rink’s side limits, it is still “alive” and in play. A “dead end” is proclaimed and the end is replayed without any points being added up if the jack crosses the side boundary of the rink (whether in the ditch or not).

• In order to obtain a tactical edge, it is acceptable to strike other players’ bowls with your own.

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How to win a game in lawn bowls:

The winner is the first person or team to reach 21 points or to have gained more points after 18 or 21 ends, whichever comes first. Players might also play ‘sets,’ where the first player to score a certain number of points, such seven, wins the set. The first player to win five sets wins the match.