Commonwealth Games 2022: What is Lawn Bowls?

Lawn Bowls has been a core sport at the Commonwealth Games since its inception. However, the sport is quite unknown to many. England boasts of the most number of medals (51) in the sport at the CWG.

In the Birmingham edition, India has fielded a strong 10-member Bowls team and will be looking to clinch a maiden medal in the discipline. The country's participation in the game started in 2010, and they come close to a medal on multiple occasions.

Indian Team:

Men's: Sunil Bahadur (Singles, Pairs), Mridul Borgohain (Pairs, Fours), Dinesh Kumar (Triples, Fours), Navneet Singh (Triples, Fours), Chandan Kumar Singh (Triples, Fours).

Women's: Nayanmoni Saikia (Singles, Pairs), Lovely Choubey (Pairs, Fours), Tania Choudhury (Triples, Fours), Rupa Rani Tirkey (Triples, Fours), Pinki (Triples, Fours).

What are the rules of Lawn Bowls?

The sport involves rolling a bowl down a long green pathway (stretch) with the intention of getting it as close as one can to the target (the jack). The player/team who get the bowl closest to the jack wins the match.

Lawn Bowls is played in four formats: Singles, Pairs, Triples, Fours. All the formats are named after the number of people in each team. In Singles, the first player to reach 21 points wins the match. In the rest of the formats, the bowl is rolled from 18 different ends. After each team's turns are over, the one with the most points gets victory.

Format of Lawn Bowls in CWG 2022

Just like the rules of the game, the format of Lawn Bowls in the Commonwealth Games 2022 Birmingham is relatively easy to grasp. Singles players and the teams are divided into four sections where they play each other in a single match. The best two from each section, Singles or Teams, move on to the quarter-finals.

India's Lawn Bowls Schedule (29th July, Day 1)

• Tania (Women's Singles -1 pm IST and 4 pm IST)
• Men's Triples (1 pm IST and 4 pm IST)
• Men's Pairs (7:30 pm IST and 10:30 pm IST)
• Women's Fours (7:30 pm IST)