Bowls

Bowls is a fabulous pastime which is very popular, particularly with more senior participants.It has been played for hundreds of years (there is a myth Sir Francis Drake was playing it on Plymouth Ho when the Spanish Armada was spotted in 1588). It is also an excellent sport for those with physical and learning difficulties as it involves simple actions which are repeated and segmented (players take turns, as in snooker). It is also a very sociable sport and is ideal for mainstream and disability players to interact.

Bowls is a highly flexible sport and has a myriad of formats, including singles, doubles, triples and rinks of 4.

As with all these pages, the reverse traffic light system is in operation. Green means suitable for all, Amber means there may be some limitations on your ability to play, Red means some disabilities may find this very demanding but not necessarily impossible.

Soft/Target Bowls

We provide sessions which use very soft bowls suitable for use on carpets, tiles. The bowls are light in weight and specifically designed for those who are more comfortable with softer more tactile bowls. They are eye catching in bright colours and especially suitable for smaller indoor areas such as school classrooms and care home lounges. There are a variety of games that can be played including scoring in a numbered blue foam wedge and a ramp for those with very restricted movement. For the more hardy player this game can also be played outdoors on a suitable hard and flat surface such as a car park or tennis court. This game can be played almost anywhere, anytime.

Short Mat/Carpet Bowls

If people want something a little more challenging Short Mat & Carpet Bowls are viable options. Although the terms are used interchangeably leading to some confusion, Short Mat is played on a 45 foot long mat and Carpet Bowls is 30 foot long. Both have a 2 foot diameter block placed in the middle making this, like its Indoor Bowls cousin, more of a game of feel and touch and tactics. The bowls used in Carpet Bowls are significantly smaller than in Indoor & Short Mat but the 'jack' (the small white ball which acts as the target) is very similar.

Indoor Bowls

During the Winter Bowls is most often seen indoors in leisure centres and specialist clubs - Indoor Bowls is simply bowls played on a large Indoor mat and is seen on television occasionally. This tends to be a much quicker surface than outdoor and the bowls curve a great deal more making it more of a game of touch and feel and less a game of strength..

This means that Indoor Bowls does lend itself to those who have limited mobility, particularly those who are wheelchair bound who can play at specified locations..

Indoor Bowls is almost always played as 'Rink' bowls, this means playing up and down the same lane of carpet.

Outdoor (Lawn) Bowls

This is almost always played on a specialist grass surface referred to as a 'green'. Locally, these greens are managed by a mixture of council owned and private clubs. Unfortunately due to previous austerity measures the local authority do not now maintain any greens in our local area. Players normally play either 'Rink' (see above) or 'Roving Jack' where you can go anywhere on the green.

The outdoor playing season usually begins at the end of April/beginning of May and the green is then open for bowling. The season then ends early to mid September as the weather changes.

In the summer of 2022 we ran community based sessions at Peoples Park Bowls Club Grimsby on Tuesday evenings and Saturday mornings. Refreshments, equipment and qualified coaching was included in the small charge made. These sessions were well attended and we received positive feedback from those taking part. Consequently it is our intention to continue to run these community sessions again starting in April 2023. We do wish to acknowledge the huge welcome and support that we and our attendees at the greens were given by the members of the Peoples Park Bowls Club who are resident there.

If any of the above have caught your interest then please get in touch, we would love to discuss what bowls can do for you!