About Lawn Bowls

Bowls is a fun, strategic and challenging sport that can be enjoyed by anyone. It is played on a large, 120 feet long, smooth grass surface called a “green”. The green is divided into playing areas called “rinks”. Each rink is 14 feet wide. With the rinks placed side by side, there are typically 8 rinks per green, allowing multiple games to occur at the same time.

Lawn bowls are large, bowl-shaped balls, with a smooth surface in the middle between two flattened sides. One side of the bowl is biased (has more weight or bulk than the other side), so that the bowl travels along a curved path, rather than going straight.

The object of the game is to roll your bowls closer to the target than your opponents. The target is a small white ball called a “jack”. Players from each team take turns rolling their bowls down the green toward the jack. When all the bowls have been played in one direction, the players have completed an “end”. The player or team with the closest bowl to the jack earns one point for each bowl closer to the jack than the nearest opponent bowl.

Teams can be made up of 1, 2, 3 or 4 players. Depending on the number of players per team, each player will roll 4, 3 or 2 bowls during each end of play. Games typically are played for 10-12 ends (about 90 minutes), with competitive play running longer.

Bowls is easy to learn but can take a lifetime to master. Come start playing with us!