Bowls Glossary

A game, designed to be played on a billiard/pool table, with miniaturised bowls, jack, and delivery ramp.

Informal team games where participants putting their “tabs” into a kitty (A tab is a small disk with the club member’s name on it. (Visitors tabs are also available).

Dress code for tabs-in is usually informal – the only proviso being that green-friendly footwear must be worn.

If the resting place of a bowl is too wide, or particularly too narrow, to that intended, the director of the head may ask to “make sure you take your green”, meaning adjust your line compared to your last bowl.

A custom-designed tape measure used to judge the distance between the jack and one or more bowls at the conclusion of an end, which will determine the number of shots held by a player or team. A tape is used when a player’s measure is not long enough to reach the bowls in question. A longer tape is also used to measure if the jack has been delivered past the minimum length required.

The name of a Scotland-based bowls manufacturer.

A service offered by bowls manufacturers to ensure bowls still meet manufacturer and World Bowls Ltd guidelines for the amount of bias that should be exhibited by the bowls. Some associations mandate bowls must be re-tested at a predetermined interval of years. In associations where testing is mandated, bowls that do not have a stamp indicating their status can be banned from use in competitions within that association.

A table used to check that a bowl or set of bowls conform to the bias requirements of the governing body of the sport, World Bowls. Manufacturers of bowls have testing tables, used both in the manufacturing process, and as a testing service to bowlers.

In a team of 4, the player who delivers his bowl after the lead and second have delivered their bowls is known as the third. The third has specific duties, including directing the head when it is the turn of the skip to deliver their bowls.

Describes the result of a bowl delivered such that it moves the jack a slight distance from its current position.

At the end of a games scheduled number of ends, if the scores are level, a tie break end(s) will be played to determine a winner. In games where there is a set number of ends, one extra end is normally played. In sets play, a tie break, normally of three ends, is played if each player or side has won the same number of sets, after the designated number of sets have been played. An individual set does not have a tie break if the result is drawn at the end of that set.

When the two closest bowls are both exactly the same distance from the jack and belong to opposing teams, even after measurement, the end is declared a tie.

A type of grass (also known as Titdwarf, a Bermuda grass hybrid) used for the construction of lawn bowls greens. Known for its turf quality, and ability to be mowed very low, well known in warmer climates, but increasingly hybrid varieties are being used in cool climate areas.

A custom designed piece of equipment that calculated the speed of the green. the ramp uses a ball, which is delivered down the ramp in several locations on the green, and a calculation table is then used to convert the results into a time, in seconds. The timing ramp tries to overcome the variances in manually timing a green using a stopwatch and delivery of a bowl by hand.

In some competitions, an umpire will provide an indication of the speed of the green, by performing a test “timing of the green”. It is determined either with a stopwatch, recording the result of the times of a number of bowls from the point of deliver to the point of coming to rest, or using a timing ramp. The result will be a time, in seconds, usually to 2 decimal places.

A call made when determining which player or team will deliver the first bowl at the start of a game. One player will toss a coin end over end and calling “heads” or “tails” refers to the coin stopping with the head or tail of the coin are facing upward.

Is a bowl that touches the jack and remains in play. Bowls that touch the jack are marked with a spray or chalk to signify it as a toucher.

Playing a bowl so that it moves the jack from its current position to a position further sideways or backwards along the rink.

A warm up end, without scoring, to enable players to test their bowls I in the conditions before a game start.

A team game where each team consists of three (3) players, a lead, second and skip