Introduction

The sport of bowls is traditionally thought of as the exclusive preserve of the middle-aged and elderly. Pop culture references have played on this prevailing image, with both 2002 Australian comedy ‘Crackerjack’ and the 2003 British film ‘Blackball’ using the concept of the young man as ‘invading’ the otherwise geriatric bowling sub-culture.

Indeed, when considering the status and popularity of bowls in the world today, the greatest hindrance has been the inability to appeal to a wider (and younger) audience. Dwelling on image issues would be unfortunate though, as bowls is fundamentally a game requiring high levels of precision skill to excel rather than some ageist arrangement amongst octogenarians. Indeed, the game has been around since the Middle Ages and is still popular in Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and practically everywhere else in the Commonwealth.

That said, the idea of ‘bowls’ is in itself a bit of a misnomer, as the sport’s expansion and development has seen the emergence of a number of sub-divisions on the basic format. This guide will focus on the Lawn Bowls format, being the most influential form, but it is worth mentioning all the variations at this stage to give an overall sense of bowls today. Never fear if you don’t understand the terminology at this stage, all will be explained later in full.