Today we will talk about a different game called Lawn Bowls. It is also known as Bowls. Although this game is not an official Olympic game but it certainly features in every Commonwealth Games. So let us know about this different ball game!
The objective of the game is to roll a biased ball towards a smaller ball which is called 'jack' or 'kitty' and it should stop as close as possible to those smaller balls. The game is played on a pitch which can be a flat one or convex or even uneven and it is played outdoors. Now a days it is also played on a artificial turf as well in some parts of New Zealand.
The game can be played between two or more competitors. In singles, one of the two players flips a coin to decide who wins the 'mat' and begins the session. He places the mat and rolls the 'jack' to the other end of the green, which he will see as a target. Once the jack is rested it will be aligned to the center of the rink and different players take turns to roll their bowls from the mat towards the jack and then thus they build up the 'head'.
The bowl is allowed to curve outside the rink, but then it should fall within the boundary when it stops. The bowls falling outside the rink are called dead, except if they have touched the jack on their way. Those bowls are marked as 'touched' by a chalk and will remain alive even if they are in the area of the ditch. Similarly, if the jack is also being pushed out of the playing area, then also it will be considered as 'alive'.
Normally in Lawn Bowls, four bowls are allowed in singles, three each in triples and two bowls each in the fours. The closest bowls to the jack, then are counted and those will be called shots which then will be awarded to each competitor who has his bowl closer to the jack then his opponent. One shot is awarded for each closest bowl. Then the action is repeated for the next end. There are total 21 ends in a normal Lawn Bowls. The green of lawn bowls come with different variations which are called fast, slow, big crown, small crown etc.