Lawn Bowls – Rules, scoring system, and equipment
Lawn Bowls – Rules, scoring system, and equipment: What kind of sport is Lawn Bowls?
Lawn Bowls is a sport with the objective to roll biased balls. These balls have to stop close to a smaller ball called a ‘jack’ or a ‘kitty’. The matches take place on a Lawn Bowls Green within a rink area. There are six rinks per green.
The Lawn Bowls match begins with the toss of a coin. It gives one competitor the option to roll the jack at least 23 meters down the green. The competitors take to bowl, to aim. The points are awarded for each bowl that goes closest to the jack.
Equipment
The bowls used in lawn bowls are of weight and rounded on one side. The bowl can be made of wood, rubber, or plastic resin. The balls have indentations on them to help players grip the bowl.
Depending on the material used, bowls have diameters ranging from 112mm to 134mm. The weight must be 1.59 kg.
The jack ball is smaller and lighter than the actual bowl. The jack ball comes in 2 colors – white and yellow.
Players should bowl standing on a 600mm long and 360mm mat.
Rules
In the event of a four, the bowler who bowls first is called the lead. The lead is followed by the second member and the third member. The last bowler is called Skip.
Each lawn bowl rink has two ends on both sides. The game begins with a coin toss. The winner chooses which end to begin from. They then place the ball at one end and roll the jack towards the other end.
The jack must travel at least 23m to be considered in play. When the jack comes to rest, it is brought to the center of the rink. The teams then begin their series of bowls.
The bowler must keep one foot on the mat when they are bowling.
In four events, each team member has two bowls per round (called END). When all eight bowlers are done with both their bowls, they switch over.
Scoring
Points are awarded at the dusk of each end to the team or bowlers who got their bowls closest to the jack.
Umpires have a device called a box measure. The device uses string to measure the distance between the jack and the bowls.
In the fours event, each match has a decision after 15 ends. If the scores are tied after 15 ends, the teams are supposed to play extra ends until a winner emerges.
Attempts
Each team gets four attempts to play. In other formats of the game, a team gets two throws per player. In the four-player format, every team gets eight throws from one end.
Commonwealth Games 2022 – India’s Performance
The Indian Women’s Fours team in Lawn Bowls won a gold medal for the country. They defeated South Africa 17-10 in the final match. The members of the Indian Team are Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia, and Rupa Rani Tirkey.
India successfully clinched a gold medal in Lawn Bowls CWG 2022. The team won by 17-19 against South Africa.
On Monday, the Women’s Fours assured the country of its first-ever gold medal in its history. They emerged victorious with a 16-13 win against New Zealand in the semi-finals. The semi-finals were hosted at Victoria Park in Royal Leamington Spa.