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Ed Drake, age 11, of St. Augustine, Fla., for his question:

WHEN WAS LAWN BOWLING INTRODUCED?

Lawn bowling is a game in which the players roll wooden or plastic balls at a smaller target ball. Lawn bowling goes back to ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. It has also flourished as a sporting game in England since the 1100s.

Today lawn bowling is played under association rules in about 20 nations including the United States and Canada. There are many organizations that sponsor annual tournaments.

Usually lawn bowling is played outdoors on smooth, level grass plots called greens. But the game may also be played indoors on artificial surfaces.

A standard bowling green is about 120 feet square. It conists of six rinks or alleys. Each rink is 20 by 120 feet. Six matches can be played at the same time.

The balls are called bowls and they measure about five inches in diameter. They can weigh no more than three and a half pounds. The bowls are not round. One side is larger than the other and this shape causes the bowl to roll a curving line.

The lawn bowling players control the amount of curve by the manner and speed of their delivery of the bowls. They bowl from rubber or plastic mats at each end of the rink.

The target ball, called the jack, is round and has a diameter of about two and a half inches. The jack weighs about 10 ounces.

A game may be played by singles, pairs, triples or fours. Each player tries to roll his bowls as close as possible to the jack. He also tries to knock an opponent's bowl away from the jack or knock the jack away from an opponent's bowl. In addition, he may try to guard a bowl thrown by a teammate.

Each side faces the challenge of the jack's position, the course of the bowls and the need to counter the other team's strategy.

The first bowler, called the lead, rolls the jack to the far end of the rink.

Making suggestions as each player bowls is the captain of the team. He is called the skip. After each team member has bowled, the skip brings up the rear.

In team matches, each player rolls two to four bowls. A singles player rolls four bowls. The side with the bowl nearest the jack scores one point. It also scores one point for every bowl lying closer to the jack than the nearest bowl of the other side.

After both sides have delivered all bowls from one end of the rink they have completed an end, or inning. They play the next end from the other end of the rink.

The first side to score a certain number of points, usually 21, or to win a specific number of ends, wins the match.

A match may also be decided by the number of points scored by each side during a fixed time period.

 

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