THE GAME OF SHORT MAT

by Lesley Dickinson

The Game of SHORT MAT Bowls, as its name suggests, involves the use of a shorter rink mat than full length Indoor Bowls. This mat will be somewhere between 12 and 13½metres (40-45ft) long and about 1.8metres wide. The players use full size flat green bowls.

(It should be noted that there is also a scaled down game played on a 9 metre (30ft) rink with bowls which are around 97mm in diameter.)

The mat should be placed on a level floor, marked as follows...

(All line marking must be no wider than ½ inch)

  1. The ditches shall be marked clearly across the end of the mat 1ft from the edge.
  2. Another line 9ft from the ditch line going straight across is the dead line.
  3. The jack line shall be 3ft long and in the middle of the rink mat with one end 3ft from the ditch line and the other 3ft from the dead line.
  4. Delivery lines shall be marked 4ft 6inch long starting at right angles from the ditch line, the distance from each side of the mat is 13inches.
  5. The delivery mat lines shall be 12inches long and at right angles towards the back edge of the mat and a distance of 7 inches either side of the jack line.
  6. The block line shall be 15inches long and centerd across the centre of the mat.
Delivery mats 2ft long x 1ft 2inches wide.

Fenders enclose the back and two sides of the mat and shall be made of wood and painted white.

Centre block shall be 15inches long x 3inches high x 1½ inches in width. Again it must be made of wood and painted white (can be square or rounded at the ends). This is not fixed to the mat.

My thanks to Darren Stanford for the additional information. Darren plans to expand on this topic shortly - so if you are interested, watch this space !

If you have any information to add to this, please email me at:

DICKINSON ENTERPRISES
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