When was bowls invented

The earliest mention of it in serious American literature is by Washington Irving, when Rip Van Winkle awakens to the sound of "crashing ninepins. The first permanent American bowling location probably was for lawn bowling, in New York's Battery area.

Now the heart of the financial district, New Yorkers still call the small plot Bowling Green. The game had its ups and downs in America.

An Connecticut law made it illegal to maintain "any ninepin lanes,", probably because bowling was the object of much gambling. But the problem, of course, also evidenced its popularity. Also, many captains of industry chose to install a lane in their mansions. While it is uncertain where the tenpin game evolved, by the late s it was prevalent in many states such as New York, Ohio and as far "west" as Illinois.

However, details like ball weights and pin dimensions varied by region. It may even have been brought over by the conquering Normans in or shortly thereafter, though there's no documentary evidence that this is true. Like Italy's bocce and Provencal's petanque, lawn bowling originated in a game played by Roman soldiers, in which stones were tossed toward a target stone with the object of getting as close to the target as possible. Roman legions introduced the game to countries throughout their empire.

Over time, the stones were replaced by balls that were usually rolled, rather than thrown. Despite the dissolution of the National Bowling Association and the American Amateur Bowling Union, there remained a definite need for a governing organisation for the bowling game known then as American Tenpins.

Having established rules for Tenpins, these men remained firm in seeing that these rules were enforced. By dealing in a strict but fair manner with problems the ABC quickly earned the respect of all those who enjoyed the tenpin sport. In those early days bowlers banded together into clubs.

The met for weekly intra-club competition and then there were many exciting matches between rival clubs. While the heaviest concentration of such clubs was again among the German settlement in New York, the game also had its devotees in other leading cities across the nation.

Leaders of the game in these other cities adopted the rules of the American Bowling Congress and came to the ABC conventions to lend support and pass along their ideas to improve the game and the organisation.

The popularity of the game continued to grow and the founding fathers of the congress realised their role as governing body of the game, but also recognised the value of freedom of operation at the club or league level and their basic philosophy remains today. ABC leagues have a great deal of freedom of operation as long as they do not violate any playing rules of the ABC. Also the value of local organisations was recognised by the national body and today there are 3, such local ABC associations throughout the United States.

The TBPA have received many enquiries regarding where the guidelines for Tenpin Bowling can be found on the government website. Many are confused as tenpin bowling is not specifically mentioned on the 'Working safely during coronavirus Co Read More. Search by City Please Select There is still a league in South East Hampshire that plays an what they claim is the old version of Lawn Bowls.

The woods used are a minimum of Jaques No 6 Bias and have to end up within four feet of the jack to score. The English Bowling Association was founded in and it is very well organised sport which hosts numerous competitions from the club to the national level. The sport is most popular in the South of England with thousands of devotees.

Because success doesn't require physical fitness, it is particularly favoured by older folk but there are a lot of younger players, too. As with many English sports, Lawn Bowls spread to the the British colonies from the s onwards. Records show that President George Washington played bowls on his estate. In Australia, bowls first was played in Sandy Bay, Tasmania in The game appeared in New Zealand sometime during the 30 years after that.

The World Bowling Board WBB is responsible for the standardisation of rules across the world, and is charged with the task of encouraging the growth of the game world-wide. Each foursome is headed by a "Skip" and these are shown to the right examining the position of the bowls in order to determine which strategy to adopt. The "skips" begin by walking to the "head" end from where they shout encouragement and advice to the rest of their team.

They then bowl the final woods themselves. Lawn Bowls is usually played straight up and down a lawn. Other games are "Pairs" - four players in two teams, each player having four bowls, "Triples" - three players with three bowls each and "Rinks" or "Fours" - four players two bowls each.

Each bowl is less rounded on one side which results in the bowl being "biased" in one direction due to the extra weight on one side. The bias of a correctly rolled bowl ensures that it follows a slightly curved path as it rolls which accentuates as the bowl comes to a halt. The Jack is a smaller white ball without a bias.

The sport of Lawn Bowls is the forerunner of Curling, a tremendously popular winter version played in northern countries including Canada and Scotland on ice. It isn't clear if the Scots or the Dutch invented the game; the first written records on it are from the 's. At one time the stones that slide across the ice were pieces of granite weighing up to 56kg. Gradually they evolved into plump stone discs with a handle protruding from the top surface. The target is a circle 32 metres from the thrower and the game is played by 2 teams of 4 players, each player sliding 2 stones per go.

The slightly bizarre final aspect of the game is that each player is equipped with a genuine broom which is used to scrub the ice just ahead of the stone as it slides towards the target. The scrubbing warms the ice which creates a film of water that the stone slides over speeding it slightly.

Skilful work with the broom will successfully deviate the direction of the stone or lengthen the distance it travels in such a way that it eventually comes to rest nearer to the target Crown Green Bowls is a game of arguably greater interest since it features an additional dimension. A Crown Green is a square lawn slightly higher in the middle than at the edges and play is conducted all over the lawn in any direction making for a great deal more variety than the flat green game.

The game has always been associated more with pubs and taverns than Lawn Green bowls and although it does not have the enormous popularity of the flat green game, it thrives very happily within its home base of the North of England and the North West Midlands. Play is almost always singles and each player bowls just two bowls each end. The winner of each turn can play the jack in any direction and at any reasonable distance within the lawn boundary which is a ditch.

Some players are best at bowling across the hump, others along the sloping side, some prefer short distances, others long and so many additional tactical complexities are introduced by the unusual lawn. Watching the multiple games occurring in all directions at once across a crown green bowling lawn is an spectating experience worth seeking out. Somehow, the individual games manage to intersect and cross over each other without any adverse consequences!

The Greville Arms team - a league game played on the 4th September In the picture on the right, the two players walking from left to right are from separate matches being played in parallel.