Bowls is a variant of the boules games (Italian: bocce), which, in their general form, are of ancient or prehistoric origin.

The aspect of tossing the balls to approach a target as closely as possible is recorded in ancient Rome.

A Roman sepulchre in Florence shows people playing this game, stooping down to measure the points.

William Fitzstephen (d. about 1190), in his biography of Thomas Becket, gives a graphic sketch of the London of his day and, writing of the summer amusements of young men, says that on holidays they were "exercised in Leaping, Shooting, Wrestling, Casting of Stones [in jactu lapidum], and Throwing of Javelins fitted with Loops for the Purpose, which they strive to fling before the Mark; they also use Bucklers, like fighting Men.

), contains a drawing representing two players aiming at a small cone instead of an earthenware ball or jack.

Another manuscript of the same century has a crude but spirited picture which brings us into close touch with the existing game.

[7] A 14th-century manuscript, Book of Prayers, in the Francis Douce collection in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, contains a drawing in which two persons are shown, but they bowl to no mark.

In these three earliest illustrations of the pastime each player has one bowl only, and that the attitude in delivering it was as various five or six hundred years ago as it is today.

[6]The game eventually came under the ban of king and Parliament, both fearing it might jeopardise the practice of archery, then so important in battle.

Statutes forbidding it and other sports were enacted in the reigns of Edward III, Richard II and other monarchs.

Even when, on the invention of gunpowder and firearms, the bow had fallen into disuse as a weapon of war, the prohibition was continued.

(6 shillings and 8 pence), while those possessed of lands of the yearly value of £100 might obtain licences to play on their own private greens.

Young Mitchell was only 11 years old when he played on Kilmarnock bowling green, the oldest club in Scotland, instituted in 1740.

The patenting of the first lawn mower in 1830, in Britain, is strongly believed to have been the catalyst for the worldwide preparation of modern-style greens, sporting ovals, playing fields, pitches, grass courts, etc.

[citation needed] Lawn bowls is usually played on a large, rectangular, precisely levelled and manicured grass or synthetic surface known as a bowling green which is divided into parallel playing strips called rinks.

In the simplest competition, singles, one of the two opponents flips a coin to see who wins the "mat" and begins a segment of the competition (in bowling parlance, an "end"), by placing the mat and rolling the jack to the other end of the green to serve as a target.

Bowls falling into the ditch are dead and removed from play, except in the event when one has "touched" the jack on its way.

Bowls is generally played in a very good spirit, even at the highest professional level, acknowledgment of opponents' successes and near misses being quite normal.

The draw may stand, or the opponents may be required to play an extra end to decide the winner.

In the Laws of the Sport of Bowls[9] the winner in a singles game is the first player to score 21 shots.

In all other disciplines (pairs, triples, fours), the winner is the team who has scored the most shots after 21 or 25 ends of play.

[10] The insertion of weights is no longer permitted by the rules and bias is now produced entirely by the shape of the bowl.

A bowler determines the bias direction of the bowl in his hand by a dimple or symbol on one side.

Regulations determine the minimum bias allowed, and the range of diameters (11.6 to 13.1 cm (4.6 to 5.2 in)), but within these rules bowlers can and do choose bowls to suit their own preference.

For a right-handed bowler, "forehand draw" or "finger peg" is initially aimed to the right of the jack, and curves in to the left.

The same bowler can deliver a "backhand draw" or "thumb peg" by turning the bowl over in his hand and curving it the opposite way, from left to right.

Particularly in team competition there can be a large number of bowls on the green towards the conclusion of the end, and this gives rise to complex tactics.

In singles, two people play against each other and the first to reach 21, 25, or 31 shots (as decided by the controlling body) is the winner.

This makes it particularly appropriate for small communities as it can be played in village halls, schools, sports and social clubs.

[16] In 1972, the West-Flemish tra bowls federation was founded to uniform the local differing rules and to organise a match calendar.