History
Lawn bowls, also known as lawn bowling or bowling on the green, is considered a quintessentially English sport. However, it probably originated in France. It may even have been brought over by the conquering Normans in 1066 or shortly thereafter, though there's no documentary evidence that it was.
Like Italy's bocce and Provencal's petanque, lawn bowling originated in a game played by Roman soldiers, in which stones were tossed toward a target stone with the object of getting as close to the target as possible.
Roman legions introduced the game to countries throughout the empire. Over time, the stones were replaced by balls that were usually rolled, rather than thrown. In France, the sport became known as boules, from the Latin word for ball, and the English world "bowl" came from that French root.
The oldest known bowling green, in Southampton, England, dates at least to 1299, although other greens claim to be older than that. Henry VIII, himself a bowler, in 1511 banned the sport among the lower classes and levied a fee of 100 pounds on any private bowling green to ensure that only the wealthy could play.
The main reason for the ban, as for similar bans on other sports, was that able-bodied men were supposed to spend their spare time practicing archery. The king's proclamation also noted that arrow-makers and bow-makers weren't being productive enough because of the time they wasted on bowling.
Such bans soon passed with the use of firearms and the declining importance of archery in warfare, but the Puritan revolution virtually ended all sports in England, and lawn bowling didn't make much of a comeback even with the Restoration of 1660.
The sport flourished in Scotland, however, and the Scots during the 1840s developed a set of standardized rules that have been changed very little.
Despite the sport's antiquity, there was no central ruling body in England until 1903, when the English Lawn Bowling Association (EBA) was founded. The association grew slowly, however, and several organizations objected to the stringent rules about the condition of greens.
The Midland and East Anglian Bowling Association, organized in 1926, adopted rules allowing virtually any level grassy area to be used. In 1945, that group became the English Bowling Federation (EBF), which now has thirteen member counties, all in the east of England.
Both the EBF and the EBA conduct a variety of major tournaments, including national championships. For international competition, though, the EBA is considered the national governing body through its affiliation with the World Bowling Board and the European Bowls Union.
Lawn Bowls in America
Williamsburg, Virginia, had a bowling green as early as 1632, and another was built in 1670 at what is now Bowling Green, Virginia. A Boston green was advertised in 1714. New York City's bowling green, at what is now Battery Park, was established in 1732. After the Revolution, though, the sport virtually disappeared from the United States, possibly because it was so closely identified with England.
Christian Schepflin of Dunellen, New Jersey, discovered lawn bowling during a visit to Scotland in 1876. Upon his return, he laid out a bowling green at his home and his neighbors became enthusiastic about the sport. It quickly spread to nearby Philadelphia and into metropolitan New York. Textile workers who arrived from England in the late 19th and early 20th century helped spread the sport into New England.
The American Lawn Bowls Association (ALBA) was founded on July 27, 1915, and held its first national championship tournament, for four-man teams, in 1918. Doubles competition was added in 1920, singles in 1928.
During the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration built greens at a number of public parks across the country, and the sport experienced a small boom. It declined considerably after World War II, but began to rebound in the mid-1970s. Like bocce and petanque, it has gained considerable popularity in California and in areas of Florida, particularly around St. Petersburg.
Since 1957, the ALBA has conducted two major tournaments. The national championship is open only to U.S. players, while competitors and teams from other countries are allowed to enter the national open championship.
How It's Played
The lawn bowling green is a 120-foot square, which is divided into six rinks, each 20 by 120 feet. Balls are delivered from a rubber mat, 14 by 24 inches, at one end of the rink. A bowler must have at least one foot on the mat when the ball is released.
The four-person event is the classic version of lawn bowls. Each team (also known as a rink) has a definite lineup that rarely varies. The first bowler is called the "lead" and the fourth bowler is the "skip," that is, the skipper or captain of the team, who directs play when other bowlers are taking their turn.
A coin toss determines which team goes first, and the lead bowler on that team rolls the target ball, which is known as the jack. The jack has to travel at least 75 feet and must stay within the rink boundaries.
The lead then bowls two more balls, attempting to get as close as possible to the jack. The lead bowler is up next, followed by the number two bowler on the first team, and so on. After each player has bowled two balls, the end is complete.
Scoring is similar to horseshoes. A team gets one point for each of its balls that's closer to the jack than any of the other team's balls. Therefore, only one team can score in an end and the maximum score is 8 points, one for each ball.
The jack can be moved by another ball. However, if it's knocked out of bounds by a player, one of the other team's bowlers rolls it, while all the balls that have already been bowled remain in place.
The balls are not quite round. There's a slight bulge on one side, called the bias. When a ball is moving rapidly, it travels in a straight line, but as it slows down it begins to roll in the direction of the bias. A bowler can therefore make the ball curve in one direction or the other by positioning the bias during delivery.
The duration of the game is decided beforehand. Teams usually play a certain number of ends. In major competition, 21 ends most often constitutes a game, but there may be 14, 15, or 18 ends. In singles play, and sometimes and in team play, game is 21, 25, or 31 points.
In addition to singles and four-person teams, there is competion for two- and three-person teams. Each bowler gets two balls per end, no matter how many bowlers are involved.
A variation, crown green bowling, is popular in the northwest of England. It's played on a rectangular green that slopes gently to a crown, about 14 inches high, in the center.
The entire green can be used. Players may bowl from one side or one corner of the green to its opposite. Two or more games may be going on at the same time, each with its own starting point and jack, and the paths of the balls may actually cross one another.