Bowls Glossary

When a player has insufficiently allowed for the bias, the bowl will curve too far in front of the jack and will finish wide of the mark. This is referred to as being too narrow.

If at the completion of the end, a measure for the shot determines that both teams (or players) have one bowl of equal distance from the jack (or both have a bowl touching the jack), no score is recorded. For games that are based on a number of ends, the end still counts in the total number of ends to be played.

Describes the direction of play for the rinks, which run in parallel with each other on any given day. Most bowls rinks are built to accommodate play alternately in a North–South, or East–West direction. Green keepers and Greens Directors will alter the direction of play to assist in managing the quality of the greens over a season. Most competitions play North–South, to avoid players looking directly into the sun. East-West play is often used for social games. This does not apply to the Crown Green game of bowls which utilises the entire green surface and is not divided into rinks.

A bowler who has been a member of a bowls club for less than three years.