Bowls Formats

Lawn Bowls has many format variations, below are just a few. If you have a format you would like to share, please submit it and we’ll get it added and share it with the world.


There are currently 6 Bowls Formats in this directory beginning with the letter B.
Blind Bowls
Blind bowls is just what the name implies – players wear blindfolds and rely on their teammates’ instructions to bowl their shots. It’s a great way to test communication and teamwork skills, not to mention a lot of fun – just make sure no one trips over a bowl when playing!

Bowls Cricket
Two sides, one batting team and one bowling team.

The batting team bowls at the numbered cones scoring points for each cone they knock over.

No points are scored if the bowl hits a cone and then falls in the ditch.

The bowling team bowls at the wickets, each time they knock “the bails” off, the batting team loses a wicket. When ten wickets have fallen, the teams swap sides.

How to score:

Batting team bowls at the numbered cones scoring points for each they knock over. cones labelled 1-6, with 1 being the closest and easiest to hit, and 6 being the furthest and hardest to hit.

Equipment, Tennis balls or Bowls, 9 cones these need to be numbered 1-6 for runs and 3 stacked cones for the wicket and 2 mats.

Tips, Play a Twenty20 with 20 bowls each side, or play a test with two innings each.
Credit: Bowls Victoria

Bowls Footy
Players bowl from a mat and aim to get their bowls through the posts and remain in the scoring zone.

How to score, 6 points if you get the bowl between the middle posts, 1 point for a “behind” if the bowl goes through the outer posts and 9 points if you can land the bowl on the mat behind the central posts to score a “Super Goal”.

Equipment, Mat, Bowls with Bias. Three per participant and 4 cones.

Tips, Challenge players to knock each other’s bowls off the “target” mat. To increase or decrease the difficulty of the game you can change the position of mats to alter distance and angle or change the size of the scoring zone.
Credit: Bowls Victoria

Bowls Frisbee
Each player has 1 bowl, the bowlers line up around the frisbee thrower. Each player tries to get their bowl closest to the frisbee, all players bowl together. The closest to the frisbee throws it in another direction.

Equipment, Bowls with or without Bias and Frisbees.

Tips, Ensure game area is large enough not to hinder other games and can cater to the number of participants good range of players is from 4 to 20. Increase the number of frisbees and or break into smaller groups.
Credit: Bowls Victoria

Bowls Golf
Each player has one bowls and one jack. Players start from the Mat which is your Tee and take turns to roll, you have to try and roll your bowl towards your jack while avoiding the obstacles.

Wherever your bowl lands that is where you will next bowl from. Like Golf you count how many deliveries it takes to to complete the hole.

Score, 40 points for 3 rolls to touch the jack, 30 points for 4 or 5 rolls, 20 points for 6 or 7 rolls and 10 points for 8 or more.

Equipment, Mat acts as your Tee, Bowls one per participant, Cones (trees), hoops (sand bunkers) and a Flap Jack.

Tips, Get players to design their own Bowls golf holes and use the whole green to create a multi-hole course. To increase the challenge change each hole after it has been played once, add more obstacles such as hurdles and pool noodles and design holes close to ditches to make out-of-bound areas.
Credit: Bowls Victoria

Bowls Hoops
Each player has 3 bowls, take it in turns to roll from the mat the players then need to try and roll their 3 bowls into the 3 hoops. Wait until all bowls are rolled before scoring.

Scores, 20 points for each bowl that lands into the hoops and a bonus 40 points for landing 3 bowls into the 3 hoops. Include a marker or hurdle to help new bowlers understand where to aim
Equipment, mat, Bowls with Bias 3 per participant and 3 flat hoops.

Challenge, Add obstacles like cones in front of the hoops, space hoops out over a longer distance, encourage players to knock each other’s bowls out of the hoops. Use another hoop as an equipment zone near the mat to return bowls to after scoring is finished.
Credit: Bowls Victoria


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