India took the colonial sport seriously only in 2007, a few years before it was to host the Commonwealth Games. It first participated in lawn bowls during the 2010 Delhi CWG.
Lawn bowls is an outdoor sport n which India has won a gold medal in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG) (Representative Image)
The Indian women lawn bowls team has scripted history to win the country’s first-ever Commonwealth Games (CWG) medal in the sport in the ongoing event in Birmingham.
The Indian women’s fours team defeated South Africa 17-10 on 2 August to clinch the gold medal.
The team consisting of Nayanmoni Saikia, Pinki, Lovely Choubey, and Rupa Rani Tirkey made India proud and confirmed a medal in the sport after defeating New Zealand in the semi-finals.
Anju Luthra, manager of the Indian team, told South First, “We have been competing in lawn bowls in the last four Commonwealth games but missed out on earlier opportunities by one point. But this year the girls have outdone themselves and given their best.”
HISTORY CREATED ?
1st Ever ? in Lawn Bowls at #CommonwealthGames
Women’s Fours team win ?? it’s 1st CWG medal, the prestigious ? in #LawnBowls by defeating South Africa, 17-10
Congratulations ladies for taking the sport to a new level?
Let’s #Cheer4India#India4CWG2022 pic.twitter.com/uRa9MVxfRs
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) August 2, 2022
Luthra, who is the head of the physical education department at Jesus and Mary College in New Delhi, has been managing the team since 2010 when India played lawn bowls for the first time in the CWG, which was held in the Indian capital.
“This gold medal win has now given us the platform to create more opportunities for players and the sports in India”, said Luthra.
She hopes that after the historic CWG win, there will be more awareness about lawn bowls and many parents will take up an interest in the sport and enroll their children in camps.
When this reporter spoke to Luthra around noon Indian Standard Time on 3 August, she was busy with the lawn bowls matches in the Birmingham CWG. When she called back a few hours later, Luthra said that Mridul Borgohain and Lovely Choubey had cleared the first round in the men’s and women’s singles respectively.
Lawn bowls is a core sport of the CWG. It was part of the inaugural British Empire Games in 1930.
India started taking lawn bowls seriously only in 2007, just before it had to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The sport has been part of the National Games since the 2007 edition in Guwahati.
Lawn bowls facilities are thus present in Guwahati and Delhi. They are also available in Jharkhand and Kerala, which hosted the next two National Games, and in Odisha too.
A 10-member lawn bowls team from India is competing in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games (CWG) (Supplied)
Most of the members of the current Indian national team hail from these states. For instance, Nayanmoni Saikia is from Assam, and her village is not far from the residence of Olympic boxing medallist Lovlina Borgohain.
Lawn bowls is not a commonly known game in India. Very few are aware of the intricacies of this game which requires stamina, immense accuracy, and a keen awareness of angles.
While lawn bowls is played in indoor venues in some places, it is an outdoor sport. There are four formats — singles, doubles, triples, and fours, depending on the number of individuals pitted against each other.
The game of lawn bowls is played with four balls. They can either be called balls or bowls.
The main objective of the game is to place the ball as close as possible to the target, which is like a billiard ball and whose colour is white usually, Luthra explained. That target is called a ‘jack’.
Luthra said, “This year, the CWG made it mandatory that balls used are either red or blue, and a yellow colour jack was used instead of the regular white one.”
The balls are biased and are not perfectly round. Or in other words, one side of the ball is heavier. This means that when they are rolled, they follow a curved path. This forces the player to roll the ball in an outward direction with an angle to reach the target.
The main aim of the game is to roll the ball and get as close to the jack as possible.
Before the match starts, the jack is rolled out on the field where the match will be played and it becomes the target for the game. The toss before the start of the match decides who will throw the jack first in lawn bowls.
After each player has rolled down all of their balls, the distance between the jack and the balls is measured. The player or team are given points for the number of balls that are closer to the jack than that of their opponents.
The balls which touch the jack are called touchers and are marked with white chalk. It is called ‘touch and ball’ if the ball touches the jack and goes beyond. This ball remains alive in the play even if it falls into a ditch.
If a ball falls into a ditch without touching the jack, then it is called a dead ball.
The scoring system in this game varies from tournament to tournament. If it is a singles game, the target is normally 21. That means the first player to score 21 shots is the winner.
A team may consist of two or three, or four players. Teams bowl alternately.
The captain of the team is called the skip. The captain always plays last.
In doubles or triples, the team that has scored the most shots after around 21 ‘ends’ of play is declared the winner. The number of ends varies depending on the event.
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