Lawn Bowling - Rules

Every country has its governing body to make and update the rules of lawn bowling. Some of the important rules that one should know before playing the game are as follows.

• Lawn bowling is played either on natural grass or on an artificial turf. But it is normally played on a large, precisely levelled, manicured and rectangular field which is also known as bowling green.

• This rectangular field is also divided into rinks (also known as parallel playing strips). In a normal competition, one of the two opponents will flip the coin to decide the winner of the mat.

• The one who wins the toss wins the mat and he rolls the jack to the other end of the mat to set it as a target. After sometime, the jack will come to rest due to the friction and it will be aligned to the center of the rink. After everything is set, the players take their ball and roll it according to their turns.

• The players roll the ball towards the jack to build up the head.

• A ball normally curves in its path outside the rink but it has to come to rest within the rink boundary so that it will remain in play.

• A ball which falls into a ditch is treated as a dead ball and is removed from the game. But if the ball touches the jack and after touching it falls into a ditch then it will not be treated as a dead ball.

• The balls which touches the jack are called touchers and they are marked with a white chalk. This ball remains alive in the play even if it falls into a ditch.

• Similarly, if the jack or the kitty is knocked by a player into the ditch it is still treated as alive. According to the international standards, the jack will be again placed at the center of the rink.

• After each player has rolled down all of their balls, the distance between the jack and the balls are measured. In this process, the minimum distance between the ball and jack awards a point to the bowler.

• Each bowler has to roll four balls if it is a singles or doubles match. Each player will roll three balls in a triples match and two balls in fours.

• After the game, the distance between the balls and the jack is measured and the player whose ball is at a minimum distance from the jack is awarded with points or in lawn bowling it is called shots.