San Clemente Lawn Bowling Club
Learn The Game
Lawn Bowls is played with asymmetrical balls called "bowls." They always curve when you roll them. The object of the game is to earn points by completing a set of "ends" and getting your bowls closer to the "jack" than your opponent. What is an end? Well, baseball has "innings" and lawn bowls has "ends." What is the jack? The "jack" is a small white ball that is your target. After each player's bowls are delivered on a given end, the team closest to the jack wins points for every bowl it has closer to the jack than his/her opponent. The team with the most points after all ends have been played wins the match.The Game
The most important equipment you would need is a set of four matched bowls, each weighing about 3 pounds. For learners, we provide the bowls as well as all other needed equipment.
Another piece of equipment we provide is called the jack - a small white ball. The object of the game is to roll your bowls as close as possible to the 'jack'. The team that has a bowl nearest to the 'jack' scores one point and an additional point for each bowl from the same team that is closer to the jack than the nearest bowl from the other team.
The game of triples (three bowlers on each team) is played most commonly in this country. In triples each player delivers three bowls. On each team there are three positions: Lead (he or she will start the bowls rolling), the Vice Skip (who will play second) and the Skip (who is team's captain).
When all the players have delivered their bowls in one direction of the green, it completes the play of one end. Then the players deliver their bowls from the opposite direction of the green, completing another 'end'. The game consists of a number of 'ends' (typically 14, 16 or 18 ends in an afternoon) depending on players and their Skips.
One of the unique features of lawn bowling is that the bowls curve as they roll on the green. They curve either to the right or to the left because of the way they are made. (They have a 'bias') The bowl is heavier on one side, so it naturally curves in the direction of the weighted side as it loses speed. An elegantly curving bowl is one of the most exciting and satisfying sights for an enthusiastic lawn bowler.
~The information presented above is courtesy of the Southwest Lawn Bowls Association
Watch a video about lawn bowls
~ Video courtesy of the Newport-Harbor Lawn Bowling Club
A Bit of History
The game has its roots in old England, where it has been played since the thirteenth century. One of the most famous stories indicating the devotion bowlers have to their game is related to Sir Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada. On July 18th, 1588, Drake was involved in a game of bowls at Plymouth Hoe when he was notified that the Spanish Armada was approaching. His immortalized response was "We still have time to finish the match!" - and thereafter the English Navy soundly defeated the Armada.More History...
Since human time began, mankind has been throwing or rolling stones and rocks at some object. This was the beginning of lawn bowling. As for a documented history, there is evidence that the Egyptians played a version of the game with round stones and that the Greeks and Roman had a style that eventually became today’s Bocce. Over the following centuries the sport spread around the world under different names and rules.
It is generally accepted that a form of lawn bowling was introduced in England by Julius Ceasar’s centurions, and by the 13th Century it was entrenched in the culture there. That is where the history of today’s lawn bowling begins.
The first documented English bowling green was started in 1299. It was the South- Hampton Bowling Green Club green. Bowling was banned for commoners in the 14th Century in England and France, but continued uninterrupted in Scotland where there are more than 200 public bowling greens today. One of the most interesting stories that has some basis in fact is that of Sir Francis Drake. It is said that he insisted upon finishing his game of bowls, before going out and defeated the Spanish Armada.
Following a meeting of a number of clubs in Glasgow in 1848, W. W. Michell drew up a “uniform code of laws” which are the basis for all subsequent rules. In 1893 the Scottish Bowling Association drew up rules based on Michell’s Code and also published a Code of Ethics.
The English Bowling Association was formed in 1903 and in 1905 the International Bowling Board was formed with founding members of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales. In 1928 New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States of America were admitted.
Scottish and English colonists brought the game to our shores. In 1632 there was a bowling green established in Williamsburg Virginia. There are several towns named “Bowling Green”. George Washington had a green at Mount Vernon! Because of the dislike for things British after the Revolutionary War, lawn bowling was not popular until Scottish immigrants revived it near the end of the 19th century. Today, there are several hundred clubs belong to the United States Lawn Bowls Association and its seven Divisions.
NOTE: I give credit to essortment.com and valebowlingclub.com.uk for much of the historical information presented here.
~Research courtesy of Evan Spealman, SCLBC