After winning one silver and two bronze medals, India is set to create a historic event now when the women’s lawn bowls ‘fours’ format team takes on South Africa in a summit battle on the fifth day of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022. On Monday at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the Indian women’s lawn bowling team created history by reaching the women’s fours finals. Indian athletes Lovely Choubey, Pinki, Nayamoni Saikia, and Rupa Rani Tirkey defeated New Zealand 16-13 in the Commonwealth Games 2022 semi-final to guarantee India its first medal in this event. India first participated in lawn bowls at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Since the initial iteration of the quadrennial competition in 1930, Lawn Bowls have been included in every Commonwealth Games, with the exception of 1966. The Indian team is performing really well and is almost guaranteed to win a medal in the 2022 Games, which has increased the popularity of the sport. Teams for both men and women have now advanced to the elimination round.
Following end-9, they were tied 7-7, and following end-10, India seized the lead 10-7. Although New Zealand had a slim 13-12 lead after end-14, the game was close between the two teams. India won the match 16-13 thanks to a spectacular stroke from Turkey. While the rules of this sport are unknown to most people, let’s look at how it is now played and how well India has fared.
Lawn Bowls: What Is It?
A fixed ball known as “the jack” must be rolled toward the outdoor game of lawn bowls, which is played on a surface known as a lawn. Lawn Bowls originated in Ancient Egypt and gradually spread throughout continental Europe.
Lawn Bowls is played on a green surface and has four formats: singles, pairs, triples, and fours. Each format has a name based on how many players are on each team.
In a game of Lawn Bowls, the goal is to roll a biassed ball towards the jack. There are four ways to play the game: singles, pairs, triples, and fours. In a single Lawn Bowls match, only two teams may participate. A team rolls Jack to the opposing end to start the game. The Jack must travel at least 23 meters for the game to continue. The point at which Jack settles becomes the aim for the players.
Teams then alternately launch balls towards the objective. The format determines the number of attempts that each team is bound to get. A team is able to get four attempts when the chosen format is the singles format. A team receives two throws for each player in the multiplayer modes, though. Each team makes its allotted number of throws before the scores are tallied. This concludes that particular end or round, and the game then continues on to the following end.
How Many Shots Does Each Team Get, And How Are The Points Awarded?
In the singles format, each team receives four attempts, whereas, in other formats, each team receives two throws per player. Each team gets eight throws, or rolls, in the four-player version, all coming from the same end. The number of bowls a team has placed closer to the jack determines the points awarded. The scores are then added together to determine the winner.
In a singles competition, the first player to accumulate 21 points wins the match. In the remaining forms, there are 18 ends from which to roll the bowl. After 18 throws end, the team with the most points wins.
The Points System
Lawn bowls have an easy scoring system. The team that is able to push the balls to the closest distance of the goal point is bound to receive a point. Depending on how many bowls a team manages to position closer than its rival, that team will receive a certain number of points. For example, if team A gets two balls closer to the target than team B, they gain two points for that end.
In the singles format, a team is considered the winner if it scores 21 points more than its opponent. In contrast, some systems determine the winner on the basis of the team which has scored the most points after the 18 points mark.
To roll your bowls as close to the jack as you can, and to make sure that one or more of your balls are closer to the jack than any of your opponent’s, is the straightforward goal of the game.
Conclusion
This was all the information about the rules and format of lawn balls. The Indian teams have been displaying an excellent show of their hard work and prowess during the 2022 Commonwealth Games being held at Birmingham. Both the female and male teams are expected to grab a position at the Games for lawn balls.
There had not been much awareness of this particular sport in the country earlier but the recent performance at the Commonwealth Games is grabbing the attention of all individuals.