New to Bowls? A Guide to Bowling Opportunities

Individual, club, county or country: how competitions are entered

Bowls competitions are usually entered in one of four ways.

As an individual. You put your own name down, on your own for singles, or with one or more bowlers you've chosen for pairs, triples or fours. This covers everything from a club competition to a county competition such as Bowls Yorkshire's Over 55 Ladies Pairs, to a Bowls England competition entered directly through the Bowls England Competition Portal, such as Family Pairs.

As a club. Your club enters, and the club selects who plays. This happens at every level: locally, in league matches or competitions against neighbouring clubs; at county run inter-club competitions such as Bowls Yorkshire's Mixed Top Club; and at Bowls England national competitions such as Men's and Ladies' Top Club.

As a county. Your county enters, and the county selects the team from members of affiliated clubs. There are county leagues, for example Yorkshire plays in the Northern Counties League, and there are Bowls England inter-county competitions such as the Middleton Cup.

As a country. At the very top, England enters, selecting players who've reached a high enough standard for international competition.

In some competitions, depending on the competition's rules, bowlers from different clubs can come together to form a team. This is particularly helpful for smaller clubs that might be unable to field the number of bowlers required.

Start with your club

Your club is where your competitive bowling is most likely to start and there are usually lots of opportunities to get involved.

There will often be regular social bowling sessions where members of different abilities play together. These are a great way to meet other members, gain experience and become more comfortable on the green. Most clubs will also run their own competitions. These might include:

• Singles
• Pairs
• Triples
• Fours
• Mixed competitions
• Age-group competitions
• Novice competitions

If you're new to bowls, don't assume that club competitions are only for the experienced players. Many clubs actively encourage new members to enter, and some have competitions specifically for newer bowlers. You might not win, but you'll gain experience, meet other bowlers and learn a great deal. And you may discover that you enjoy competitive bowls.

League bowling

Most bowlers will encounter leagues fairly early in their bowling life. There are many different types of league: men's, ladies', mixed, over 55s and so on, and these usually involve playing other clubs in your locality. Some clubs also run internal leagues which are a great opportunity to get regular, competitive bowling experience.

Some leagues also run their own competitions for players who play in that league. These can be a really good place to start if you want to try competitive bowls outside your club. Why? For a start, there are often fewer entrants than in a county competition. You also generally won't have to travel too far. The matches are played at clubs that already take part in the league, so you'll be more familiar with the greens and you may already be starting to recognise some of the other bowlers even if you don't yet know everyone's name!

That can make a league competition feel much less daunting than entering a competition where you don't know anyone and could be travelling further to an unfamiliar ground.

Local tournaments

Another great way to try external competitive bowls is through local tournaments. These are often held over a single day. Some are one-off events, while others are annual competitions run by a club or a league organisation. There are lots of different formats, but two common ones are knockout competitions and group competitions.

Knockout competitions

Everyone goes into a draw. You play your first match and, if you win, you progress to the next round. Win again and you keep going. Lose and you're out. But being knocked out isn't necessarily the end of the day! You can sit back and watch some good bowling, chat to the other competitors and there's often plenty of tea and cake involved.

Group competitions

Another format is to divide the entrants into groups. You play a small number of matches against the other bowlers in your group, perhaps three rounds of eight ends. The winner of each group then progresses to the next stage.

These events can be a great introduction to external competitions because you're guaranteed to play more than one game and you get to meet several other bowlers.

Many local tournaments also raise money for charity. There may be a small entry fee and a raffle, with participating clubs often bringing one or two prizes. So you're getting a day's bowling, meeting other bowlers, enjoying some food and helping raise money for a good cause. What's not to like?

If you enjoy playing in these sort of tournaments it is worth joining some local Facebook bowling groups as they are often advertised in this way.

All of the above competitive opportunities may be available through your club whether or not your club is affiliated with Bowls England.

Opportunities for Bowls England affiliated clubs

Clubs are affiliated to Bowls England via their County Bowls Association. There are 35 County Bowls Associations in England.

County Bowls Association competitions

Bowling opportunities will vary from county to county but they will usually include:

• County competitions where winning means you're the county champion for that discipline but there is no progression beyond that. These competitions can include individual competitions (Bowls Yorkshire has Over 55 Pairs and Mixed Triples for example) and inter-club competitions.
• County competitions where county winners progress to the Bowls England National Championships at Leamington. Bowls England allocates each county a certain number of places for each competition, often one or two, although this varies. In some competitions, the winner in each county gets a place at the National Championships; if the county has two allocated places, the runner-up may also qualify. These competitions include men's and women's singles, pairs, triples, fours and so on. The way in which these competitions are organised will vary between counties and between competitions. In some cases you will be contacting a competitor directly to arrange a next round match. In other cases, there may be set dates, perhaps by zone, where all entrants in that zone compete and then the winners of each zone go forward to a final stages event to decide the winner.
• Inter-county leagues and competitions. Your county plays other counties in a regional league (Yorkshire plays in the Northern Counties League), or enters a Bowls England inter-county competition such as the Middleton Cup.

Look on your local County Bowling Association website for further information.

National competitions

Some national competitions can be entered directly, by you, or by your club on the Bowls England Competitions Portal without any involvement from county.

Some of these are entered individually, like Family Pairs. Others are entered by your club as a team, like Men's and Ladies' Top Club.

Either way, the early rounds are usually organised on a regional basis with the entrants arranging their own matches. You (or your club) contact the opponent, agree a date, time and venue, play the match and then submit the result through the Bowls England competition portal. Win, and you move on to the next round and arrange your next match. In some cases, particularly for inter-club competitions, the matches must take place on set dates.

Keep winning and eventually you could find yourself heading to the Bowls England National Championships at Leamington.

It's worth saying that some of these competitions require quite a bit of travel depending on how many entrants there are into a competition and how they are zoned.

Look on the Bowls England Competitions Portal for further information.

Something to be aware of is that the rules for county run competitions may be slightly different from the rules for Bowls England competitions that you enter directly. For example, Bowls Yorkshire rules say that challengers should offer their opponent 2 dates, whereas Bowls England require challengers to offer 3 dates when arranging a next round match. Check the rules on your County Bowling Association website or the Bowls England Competitions Portal, or speak to your club captains or club secretary who may be more familiar with competitions rules.

The English Bowling Federation

After I published this post, a reader got in touch on Facebook to point out that I'd missed the English Bowling Federation (EBF) - thank you to them because it's an important gap to fill and I wasn't aware of the EBF previously.

The EBF, alongside the English Women's Bowling Federation (EWBF) has affiliated counties mainly across the North and East of England and runs its own programme of county and national competitions, including singles, pairs, rinks, mixed, veterans and Under-25 events.

This is a particularly relevant part of the bowling landscape in my area, as Cleveland is one of the EBF-affiliated counties and my own club plays against Cleveland clubs in the North Yorkshire Bowling League. The EBF and EWBF websites provide details of their competitions, counties and opportunities for bowlers.

You can find out more at fedbowls.co.uk.

You might be surprised where bowling takes you

You can play socially. You can enter a club competition. You can try a local league competition or a local tournament. You can represent your club. You can enter a county competition. You can try a Bowls England competition. You can represent your county. And for those who reach the very highest levels, there's the possibility of representing England.

You don't need to decide where you want to end up when you first pick up a bowl. Just start by saying yes to the next opportunity that interests you.

You might lose your first competitive match, or you might surprise yourself and win it. Either way, you'll probably learn something, meet some new people and come away wanting to have another go. And that's not a bad way to start your bowling journey.

Bowling opportunities at a glance