There are two styles of bowls, flat green and crown green, flat green is predominately played in the south of England while crown green is more common in the north. Here at Wistaston we play crown green, so called because the centre of the green is higher than the outside, this plays an important part in the tactics of the game, we'll cover this later.

 

The equipment required consists of a mat, a ‘jack’ (sometimes called the block) and two bowls (sometimes called woods). The jack is smaller than the bowls. Both jack and bowls have a weight on one side known as the bias; this also plays a role in the tactics of the game. To commence play the player who goes first places the mat on the green. They then place their right foot (right-handed player or left foot left-handed player) on the mat. The jack is bowled first, and the player must choose to bowl it ‘thumb’ (bias on the thumb side of the hand) or ‘finger’ (bias opposite the thumb.) The player must tell the opponent if the jack is bowled finger or thumb. The player going first can decide where and how far the jack is bowled, this is known as setting the mark (in competitive bowls this must be at least 19 metres from the mat.) If the jack goes off the green the first player loses the right to set the mark and the opponent bowls the jack. The first player then bowls his wood to get as close as possible to the jack, the second player then attempts the same and finally each player’s second wood is bowled to complete the end. The player whose wood is nearest the jack scores 1 point. If their second wood is also closer than their opponent’s, they score 2 points. The first player to score 21 is deemed the winner.

 

The player who goes first generally has a slight advantage as they decide where and how far to bowl the jack. They can also decide whether to bowl a round peg, bias is facing away from the crown causing the bowl to curve, or a straight peg, bias facing the crown keeping a straighter line. A lot depends on where you are on the green and how pronounced the crown is.