Lawn Bowls Sport

Facts for Prelims

Lawn Bowls Sport

News: In Commonwealth Games 2022, Indian women's team scripted history by winning the country’s first-ever Gold Medal in “Women’s Four Lawn Bowls” Sport. Our women’s team comprised of Rupa Rani Tirkey, Pinki, Nayanmoni Saikia and Lovely Choubey. We defeated South Africa in the finals.

About the sport:

• Lawn bowls is often considered a mix of “Ten-pin Bowling” and the winter sport of “Curling”.
• While in ten-pin bowling, the goal is to take down all the pins at the end of a lane.
• In lawn bowling, the team has to get the ‘Bowl’ (the Ball) closest to a target, which is known as the ‘Jack’.
• Bowls are mostly spherical ball-like objects, typically made of wood, rubber or plastic resin, having flattened sides.

How is the game played?
• Players stand on either side of a 600mm long and 360mm wide mat and take turns rolling these bowls in an attempt to get closest
to the jack. The jack is either white or yellow in colour and is smaller and lighter than the bowl.
• In the fours event, the first bowler, called the lead, is followed by the second and the third. The last bowler is called the ‘skip’ and is
the leader of the team. Each team member gets two bowls per round.
• Umpires use a device called “Box Measure” which uses a string to measure the distance between the jack and the bowls.

To read more about the history of the sport you may refer to the following link -
https://theprint.in/sport/what-is-lawn-bowls-the-outdoor-sport-that-gave-india-its-historic-gold-at-commonwealth-games/1066234/