What Is Lawn Bowls? The Sport That Got India Its Historic Gold At Commonwealth Games

The Indian Women's Lawn Bowls team secured a historical gold at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games on August 2. This is India's first ever medal and the first gold medal in the sport. While we are celebrating the team of four who achieved this feat, many people are clueless about what lawn bowls actually is, and what are the rules. Numerous people are busy searching for information about this game, which is not so popular in India. However, this could change with the CWG gold medal.

The Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 commenced on July 28 and various sports under the tournament will continue till August 8. The most recent gold that India grabbed at the CWG was by the Indian Women's Lawn Bowls team who defeated South Africa in the finals with a massive lead of 17-10. While the moment is of pride for India, it is sad that not many people are aware of what this sport is.

What Is Lawn Bowls?

Lawn Bowls is also known as bowling or bowls and is usually played outdoors, although there are many indoor venues for the sport as well. The game consists of two types of balls of different sizes which can be of any colour. The game begins with a toss and the team that wins the coin toss is allowed to roll a small bowl which is known as a 'jack' or a 'kitty' down a stretch of turf called bowling green- named so due to its colour. The jack is to be rolled at least 23 meters down the turf. Once that is done, the teams are given bigger bowls and the goal is to roll down this larger bowl as close as possible to the jack.

Picture Credit : Olympics

The points are awarded on the basis of the number of the balls that a team rolls closer to the jack compared to its opponent. The game is played in singles, doubles, triples and fours formats, all of which have different criteria of deciding the winner. For singles, the one who completes 21 points first is the winner while for the multi-player formats, the team with the most points wins the game. The shape of the bowling green can be of two types, flat and convex or uneven. When the game is played on a flat bowling green, it is called flat-green bowls and when it is played on a convex turf, it is called crown green bowls.

The Indian team that won the fours lawn bowls event is led by Rupa Rani Tirkey and features players Nayanmoni Saikia, Pinki and Lovely Choubey. While countries like England, Australia and South Africa have won numerous gold medals in the sport at the Commonwealth Games, this is India's first podium finish and that too with a gold medal. What makes this win even more special is the fact that India only started participating at the event since 2010, with this being our fourth appearance.

So far, India has shown a good performance at the CWG with 10 medals in its account out of which four are gold, three silver and three bronze and is currently on spot six on the ranking chart. The athletes who have won medals for India so far are Sushila Devi Likmabam, Harjinder Kaur, Vijay Kumar Yadav, Bindyarani Devi, Jeremy Lalrinnunga, Sanket Sargar, Mirabai Chanu, Achinta Sheuli, Gururaja Poojary and Indian Women's Lawn Bowl team. Meanwhile, the Men's Table Tennis team and long jumpers Muhammed Anees Yahiya and Murali Shreeshankar are in their respective game's final rounds and India is looking forward to grabbing medals in the coming days of CWG.

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CWG 2022: Indian Lawn Bowl Team Led By Rani Tirkey Creates History, Wins Gold