Bowls is a variant of the
boules games (Italian:
bocce), which, in their general form, are of ancient or prehistoric origin.
Ancient Greek variants are recorded that involved throwing light objects (such as flat stones, coins, or later also stone balls) as far as possible. The aspect of tossing the balls to approach a target as closely as possible is recorded in ancient Rome. This game was spread to
Roman Gaul by soldiers or sailors. A Roman sepulchre in
Florence shows people playing this game, stooping down to measure the points. Bowls in England has been traced certainly to the 13th century, and conjecturally to the 12th century.
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." It is commonly supposed that by
jactus lapidum, Fitzstephen refers to an early variety of bowls, possibly played using round stone; there is a record of iron bowls being used, though at a much later date, on festive occasions at Nairn.. On the other hand, the
jactus lapidum of which he speaks may have been more akin to
shot put. It is clear, at any rate, that a rudimentary form of the game was played in England in the 13th century. A manuscript of that period in the royal library,
Windsor (No. 20, E iv.), contains a drawing representing two players aiming at a small cone instead of an earthenware ball or jack. The world's oldest surviving bowling green is the
Southampton Old Bowling Green, which was first used in 1299. Another manuscript of the same century has a crude but spirited picture which brings us into close touch with the existing game. Three figures are introduced and a jack. The first player's bowl has come to rest just in front of the jack; the second has delivered his bowl and is following after it with one of those eccentric contortions still not unusual on modern greens, the first player meanwhile making a repressive gesture with his hand, as if to urge the bowl to stop short of his own; the third player is depicted as in the act of delivering his bowl. 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. Strutt (Sports and Pastimes) suggests that the first player's bowl may have been regarded by the second player as a species of jack; but in that case it is not clear what was the first player's target. 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. In the third, he stands almost upright; in the first, he kneels; in the second, he stoops, halfway between the upright and the kneeling position. National Bowling Associations were established in the late 1800s. The Victorian Bowling Association was formed in
Victoria, Australia in 1880. The Scottish Bowling Association was established in 1892, although there had been a failed attempt in 1848 by 200 Scottish clubs. Today, bowls is played in over 40 countries with more than 50 member national authorities. ==Game==