Christmas special: Postcard Stockings galore! - Picture Postcard ...

Crown Green Bowls
John MMayhew
Crown green bowls is played mostly in the north of
England where it originated. Generally a game
between two players, it uses a green which has
raised ‘crown’ at its centre. Although the game is
played mainly in the north there are greens situated
as far south as Kenilworth, Southampton and
Bournemouth.
As crown green uses a deliberately
contoured area which
is difficult to replicate with
indoor artificial surfaces,
there is only one indoor
green, at Birkenhead. The
game was first played in the
1870s and Lancashire was the
first county association,
formed in 1888. The British
Crown Green Bowling Association
dates back to 1907 and
in England and Wales there
are 130,000 registered
bowlers playing for 2,600
clubs. No two greens are alike
as they can be round, square,
oblong or mis-shaped with
the raised portion not always
in the centre. Most greens are
either square or rectangular
and can be 35 metres long
and 20 metres wide and the
surface may be irregular. The
ideal green is 37 metres
square with a 30cm - 37.5cm
crown enabling four singles
or pairs matches to be played
at the same time. Each player
has a pair of bowls weighing
up to 3lbs each and points are
scored by getting bowls nearer
to the jack than your opponent.
Bowls are manufactured
so they run on a curving
course known as bias and
unlike flat green bowls the
jack is made in a similar way.
The crown jack is 95-98mm in
diameter and coloured black
with white mounts and spots
or white with black mounts
and spots. The person who
wins the toss bowls the jack a
minimum distance of 19
metres while his toe is resting
on a circular rubber or plastic
mat up to 154mm in diameter
termed a “footer”. There is
one big difference between
flat green and crown green
bowls as the names imply.
With flat green the surface
has to be as flat as possi-
ble and specified rectangular
areas known as rinks are
allotted to each group of
bowlers. A crown green
bowler has no such restrictions
and can bowl from one
side to the other and even to
either corner. The laws of the
game state that if a running
jack or bowl appears to be in
danger of striking a still bowl
or jack belonging to another
set, such running bowl or jack
should be stopped and
returned to be replayed. It is
easy to imagine one singles
or pairs game being played
but to envisage four games
taking place at the same time
all bowling over the one
crown is as they say “another
ball game”.
The bowling green at
Blackpool shows bowlers on
three sides of the green bowling
at the same time. It is not
easy to detect the crown on a
postcard and the circular mat
or footer is the only clue to a
crown green game.
Players compete for
their county championships
but the big singles event is to
decide the champion of
champions held at the Waterloo
Hotel in Blackpool at the
end of the season. Fifteen
county champions plus seven
other competition winners
compete for the title. There
are two cards dealing with
the Waterloo Bowling Handicap,
one commencing on
Sept 2nd 1929 and the other
on Aug 31st 1936. I have not
been in Blackpool when the
“Waterloo” is taking place
and my only viewing of it is
by looking at the edited TV
coverage spread over several
days. The big difference
between the flat green championships
played at
Bowling Group. The bowls
are at the women’s feet but were they in the team?
24 Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009
New ManchesterHippodrome
Band in a
bowling
match at
a pub
green in
Stockp
o r t
Road,
A r d -
wick.
A pub green was a popular venue for a
famous match like the ongoing “Waterloo” at Blackpool.
Bowling Green, Hoylake. The bowler in the foreground is
bowling straight ahead, while two bowls far left indicate
another match being played across him from right to left.
Publisher unknown. ‘Clarendon’ series. Postally used 1919.
The Bowling Green, Alexandra Park, Oldham. Footer being
used by bowler on left bowling to far corner of green. Card
published by Valentine of Dundee in 1939.
Worthing and the “Waterloo”
is the large number of bookmakers
sited around the
ground
offering odds on the players.
Quite a shock to a southener
brought up in the genteel
world of flat green bowls.
Group with Trophy
The footers under the chair of the second person sitting on
the left marks this out as a crown green triumph.