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How do you score in lawn bowls?

No matter your age or ability, there’s nothing quite like a game of lawn bowls. It brings people together, keeps them healthy and is a heap of fun. This article will explain how to score in lawn bowls.

Lawn Bowls Scoring

The traditional version of lawn bowls has quite a simple scoring system. After both players or teams have bowled all of their bowls, it is time to check the score.

The lawn bowls scoring system works like this:

  1. Only the team with the closest bowl (known as the ‘shot bowl’) can score on an end.
  2. That team gets one point for each bowl they have closer than the other teams nearest bowl.

For example, if the side with the closest bowl also has the second closest, they will receive two points for that end. If the other team has the second closest bowl, the first side will only score one point.

The maximum points that can be scored on an end is equal to the amount of bowls each team or player has. In a singles match with four bowls each, the maximum score per end is four. In a pennant match it is possible to score eight points on an end – some clubs celebrate this achievement by awarding the team responsible a special badge known as an ‘8 badge’.

Alternative scoring types

While this is the traditional way of scoring in lawn bowls, other scoring systems exist, such as:

  1. Proportional (also known as 100 up).
  2. Indoor Bias Bowls
  3. Set play – such as used in the Bowls Premier League.

All of these methods can be scored in the rollUp Scorecard app.

Keeping score in lawn bowls

Traditionally, the score of a game is kept on a lawn bowls scorecard. This is a cardboard document that can be written on with a pencil. In addition to the scorecard, the score is updated on a scoreboard like this.

Lawn Bowls Scoreboard

The future

While scorecards and manual scoreboards are reliable enough, newer clubs are now installing electronic scoreboards, or using the rollUp lawn bowls Scorecard app and rollUp Live to replace these old methods. The rollUp Live app even allows you to broadcast your scores via the internet so that friends and team mates can watch your match live.