War: A New Game Played with Lawn Bowls

War is a game I have devised that is played with lawn bowls on a lawn bowling rink. It develops skills that help in standard lawn bowls competitions but makes greater use of aggressive shots while deemphasizing the draw shot. When integrated into a practice routine, the game tactics emphasize drives, on-shots, blockers, and positional bowls. It is intended as a more boisterous game.

War was imagined as being played between two players each of whom delivers four bowls. Variants of the game can be imagined with teams and more bowls delivered per side. Unlike conventional bowls, however, an extra set of 4 bowls is involved in the game. These bowls are called the bodyguards. It speeds up the game if these four bowls are of a distinct color which is easily visible from the mat. In the picture, these bowls are solid yellow. At the beginning of each end the four ‘bodyguard bowls’ are grouped within a bowl length of the jack forming a tight rectangular box around the jack
 ( two slightly in front and two slightly behind it, as in the picture). The jack itself is centered at the hog line for the first two ends, then at a spot 3 meters behind the hog line for two ends, and finally 10 meters behind the hog line for two ends.

In alternate ends, a side either attacks the ‘king’(the jack) and his bodyguard bowls or defends them. The object is to end up with your side's bowls closer to the jack wherever it ends up. The scoring is as usual. In an end, the maximum score for the attacking side is four while for the defending side, the maximum is eight, since the bodyguard bowls count as defenders. The attacking side always throws the first bowl. If the jack is driven out of bounds, it is re-spotted centered 2 meters from the front ditch. Before the first bowl is rolled the defending side is lying 4 (the bodyguard bowls). Players alternate between playing attacker or defender.

The attacking side usually drives at or delivers a running shot through the head to break the jack away from the bodyguard bowls, although any strategy is permitted. The defending side usually tries to place blocking bowls in front, receiving bowls at the back, or covering bowls at the respot point. Again the strategy is up to the players.

When the head is seriously broken apart the game becomes a competition to draw closest to the new jack position.

Try it. You will get practice with many shots differing from just drawing to the jack.