For many lawn bowlers, pennant bowls is the pinnacle of the sport. For new bowlers, pennant bowls can be confusing – so we’re here to give you the low down on scoring for this version of the sport.
Pennant Bowls Format
Pennant Bowls is a team game and is normally played between two teams of 16 players (though 12-a-side and 6-a-side versions of the game are currently being used in some states). Each team is divided into four ‘rinks’ of four players each. These four players each occupy a position – either lead, second, third or skip.
The rinks are then randomly drawn to play against a rink from the opposition team. The game is generally played over 21 ends with normal lawn bowls scoring – each team receives a point (or shot) for every bowl they have closer to the jack than the opposition’s nearest bowl.
Pennant Bowls Scoring
At the end of the 21 ends, the scores on every rink are added together to declare an overall winner. For example, if team A wins rink one by two shots, loses rinks two and three by one shot each, and then wins rink four by three shots, they will be the overall winner by 3 shots. In general pennant scoring, they will receive 4 points on the ladder.
In addition, pennant bowls scoring normally rewards winning rinks as well. This is usually 2 points per winning rink. So if Side A wins the overall shot count and wins on three out of four rinks, they will receive 10 points on the ladder (4 for the overall win and two per rink).
Keep track of the scores on your rink with the rollUp Lawn Bowls Scoring App.