The Rules of Lawn Bowling

Because the rules of lawn bowling can vary slightly from club to club, beginners can often become overwhelmed at the seemingly large amount of rules in lawn bowling. Truthfully, there are only a few basic rules but the best way to learn them is simply by playing the game and practicing with people who are familiar with the rules of lawn bowling. Even though each club has slightly different rules, there are some basics of bowls that cannot be diverted from. Here are the generally accepted rules of lawn bowling.

Lawn bowling is played on a green, which is divided up into 6 rinks and each rink is 20 feet wide x 120 feet long. The mat is laid at one end of the rink and the target or jack is laid at least 23 meters away from the mat. The object of the game is to get your bowls as close as possible to the jack and/or knocking your opponent’s bowl away from the jack.

When releasing the bowl, each player must have one foot near the mat. Scoring works by giving each team one point for every bowl they have closer to the jack than the other team. This is called the count. The length of the game will depend on the club. 14, 15, 18, or 21 ends can be played, but usually 21 ends are played. Sometimes the game will simply be played on a points system but this is more common in individual play. Usually the teams are made up of 4 players but singles, pairs, and triples can also be played.