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Whatever experience or motivation has sparked your interest in the noble art of bowls you are well advised to pursue that interest through joining a bowling club. There are more than 3,700 outdoor clubs and over 425 indoor bowls clubs throughout Great Britain. The vast majority have qualified coaches to assist you make a successful transition from novice to competent performer.
Clubs welcome new members. Many have facilities that provide for a very attractive social environment to run alongside the playing side. Entry fees and annual subscriptions are usually modest. Few other sports can offer so much playing time and social activity for so little outlay.
Should you wish to play bowls throughout the year you will probably need to join both an indoor club and an outdoor club. Some clubs have both indoor and outdoor playing facilities, but they are few in number, so it is more likely that you will join two clubs. Outdoor play ceases in September when remedial work is undertaken on the greens to enable them to recover from the intensive play of the summer season. They will reopen during the following April. Indoor play is normally undertaken during the time (September-April) when the outdoor greens are closed.
The club(s) you join will almost certainly come under the jurisdiction of a County Association, which in turn comes under the rules and auspices of its national association. Individual clubs organize their own domestic competitions and social bowls programmes, including matches against other clubs. These are for the exclusive benefit of its members. The formats involved with club competitions need not necessarily mirror those organized at national and county level. For the more competitive minded, each member of the club is affiliated to the national body and as such can enter the annual national competitions. These are normally played at county/area level as the first stage, with the winner/qualifiers going on to represent the county/area in the annual national championships.
A bowls club - the focal point for your enjoyment of both bowls action and the associated social activity.
The location of clubs can usually be found through information centres or by contacting the national governing bodies, who will be able to provide you with a contact number for County Associations, or even individual club contacts in your area. There are several factors you may wish to consider when choosing a club. These should include:
The spacious and picturesque Llandrindod Wells Outdoor Bowls Club. (Courtesy of Bowls International)
Club action at the Scarborough Indoor Bowls Club. (Courtesy of Bowls International)
Fig 1 The Green: divided into individual playing areas called rinks.
Players should familiarize themselves with the complete 'Laws of the Sport of Bowls' as a matter of course. These are published by the world governing bodies - World Bowls Ltd and World Indoor Bowls Council - in association with the individual national governing bodies. They are shown in full on the former's websites and printed copies can also be purchased for a nominal sum from the latter. Contact details are all shown in Appendix 1.
This section contains a simplified description of what the game involves, and how it is played. The various terms and expressions commonly used in the game, and frequently quoted below, are explained in the Glossary, to which you should refer as you read this introductory section. It will help you to get a good initial understanding of the rudiments of the game of bowls.
Bowls games can be played between two people (2 × singles), four people (2 × pairs), six people (2 × triples) and eight people (2 × fours). Team games can also be played. These normally involve six fours per side, but other variations can also occur. These may involve a smaller number of fours, or triples instead, a combination of individual disciplines, or a smaller number of disciplines.
Fig 2 Minimum lengths and distances.
The game of bowls is played on a green, which can be indoors or outdoors. The length of the green in the direction of play should be between 34m (32m indoors) and 40m. The green must be surrounded by a ditch with a bank against its outer edge.
The green is divided into parallel sections to provide individual playing areas called 'rinks'. Sometimes strings are used to demarcate the boundaries of the rinks. Individual games are played within the confines of each of these rinks (see Fig 1).
Each player will play with up to four bowls, depending on what type of game is being played: singles (4 bowls); pairs (4 bowls each); triples (3 bowls each) and fours (2 bowls each).
You will deliver your bowls standing on a mat, which must be at least 2m from the edge of the ditch. You will deliver your bowls down either side of the rink. Assuming you are right-handed, if you deliver them down the left-hand side of the rink (as you look at the jack) this is known as playing the 'backhand'. The other side of the rink - the right-hand side - is the forehand. If you are left-handed the opposite applies (the left-hand side of the rink is your forehand, and the right-hand side your backhand).
These are the two 'hands' you will have the choice of playing in both directions in all games.
You will hope your bowls finish as near as possible to a white spherical ball (63/64mm in diameter). This is commonly known as the 'jack', 'white' or 'kitty'. It must always be at least 23m away from the mat, at least 2m from the facing ditch edge, and positioned on the centre line of the rink.
The 'jack' always starts on the centreline of the rink at the commencement of each end. It may, of course, be subsequently knocked or trailed away from the centre line. This is all part and parcel of the game as long as it stays within the confines of the rink (see Figs 2 and 3).
Fig 3 Illustration of common bowling terms.
The object of the game is simple - to get more of your bowls close to the 'jack' than your opponent over a specified period. The area around the 'jack', where the majority of bowls come to rest, is called the 'head'. It is a commonly used, yet arbitrary, term describing an area with no finite boundaries. Its extent is open to individual interpretation.
A delivered bowl must travel at least 14m from the front of the mat for it to be considered a live bowl. The jack and bowls must also always remain within the confines of the 'rink' if they are to play any part in the game. If the jack is knocked outside the rink boundaries, or over the bank, it is considered 'dead' and the end must be replayed. (Certain competition rules allow the jack to be re-spotted on the rink instead of replaying the end, but such practice is not widespread. If it is re-spotted, it is normally placed 1m in from the rink boundary and 2m from the ditch.) If the jack is knocked into the ditch within the confines of the rink, it is still considered to be alive and play can continue. Likewise, a bowl that touches the jack and finishes in the ditch is also deemed to be 'live' and can remain in the ditch, after being 'chalked' to indicate that it is still live. Bowls entering the ditch without touching the jack are 'dead' and must be removed onto the bank. Bowls finishing outside the confines of the rink, whether they have touched the jack or not, are also 'dead'. Such a bowl must be entirely outside the rink boundary. If any part of it, however small, is within or above the rink boundary it is still considered to be in play. This also applies to the jack. Optical devices are sometimes used to line up with the rink boundary markers in order to adjudge whether bowls and jacks are still in play. Alternatively a string can be laid along the line of the rink boundary to determine the exact position of a bowl or jack there.
If the jack is driven against the bank and comes back onto the rink it remains in play as long as it is at least 20m from the front of the mat (and still within the confines of the rink). Similarly, if a bowl hits the jack and then rebounds off the bank onto the rink it is also still in...
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