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The game called bowls is the most popular form of bowling in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and some other Commonwealth lands. In the United States and Canada, where it is also widely played, it is called lawn bowling, or bowling on the green, to avoid confusion with the tenpin game.

Bowls is usually played on a smooth, level grass court. The object is to roll balls, which are themselves called bowls, as close as possible to the jack, a white ball 2.5 inches in diameter. Bowls are made of a composition material or lignum vitae and weigh not more than 3.5 pounds each. They are about 5 inches in diameter. One side of a bowl bulges less than the other, giving it what is called bias. This causes the bowl to lean to one side and curve as it loses rolling speed. A player can roll his bowl so that it will approach the jack in a curve from either side.

In singles or doubles games each player uses four bowls; in triples, three bowls. When full teams of four play, each person rolls two bowls. To start, the first player rolls the jack from a rubber mat at one end of the rink, a division of the green on which the game is played, at least 75 feet toward the other end. In team play two opposing players, called the leads, roll their bowls alternately. Then two other opposing players bowl. Last to bowl are the skips (captains) of the teams, who have been directing the play of their teammates. If a bowl touches the jack, it is marked with chalk to show that it is still alive, even if it goes into the ditch at the end of the rink. Any other bowl going into the ditch is out of play.

When all players have bowled, an end (inning) is over. The team that then has a bowl closest to the jack scores a point for every bowl that it has closer to the jack than the nearest of the opponents’ bowls. (Each set of bowls has a special marking so they can be identified.) The players then bowl toward the opposite end of the rink, the side that scored last bowling first. A game consists of 21 points in singles, or in team play a number of ends (usually 21) agreed on at the start.

Similar games were played with balls of stone in very early times. One called “bowles” was popular in England in the 13th century or earlier. The bowls used were generally of wood, and by the 1500′s they were made with bias. From England the game spread to Scotland and to the British colonies.

Bowls was played in Jamestown as early as 1611. It was also enjoyed by early New Yorkers in a small area at the lower end of Manhattan that is still called Bowling Green. Lawn bowling has grown in popularity in the United States in the present century. The American Lawn Bowling Association was formed in 1938.

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