BOWLS, brilz (Fr. Louie, It. bolla, bulla, from Lat. built:, bubble, a round object). A game played upon a smooth, flat piece of turf. The players arrange themselves in sides, usually of three or four and each man is provided with two bowls. The bowls are made of lignum vita wood, of varying size and weight, nearly round. and with a bias to one side. A smaller ball, generally a perfect sphere, and white, is placed at one end of the howling green; this is termed the jack, and the aim of the players, who stand at the other end of the green, is to so send their bowls that they may lie as near as possible to the jack. The side whose bowls are nearest the jack reckon one point for each howl so placed. Various scores make game, according to mutual arrangement beforehand. Bowls are biased or weighted on one side, that the player may reach the jack by a curved instead of it straight course, an expedient which the nature of the game ren ders particularly desirable. A bowl is played forehand when it is so placed in the hand and delivered as to cause it to approach the jack with a curve from the right; and in order to attain this curve the bowl must be held so that its bias is on the left or in-side. Backhand is the reverse. If a bowl goes out of bounds with out touching the jack it cannot count in the scoring of that end: but if it strikes the jack and then rolls out, of bounds, it reckons as if on the green. When the jack is carried off the green by a ball it is usually lifted and placed on the green as near as possible to its position in the ditch.
_N form of bowling is practiced among the pit men and other workmen of the north of England, in which stone or concrete balls are rolled over a course one-half mile to one mile long, the object being to cover the distance in the fewest possible throws.
Bowling.—Bowling on alleys has developed a greater variety of games than bowling on the green. The principal alley game is tenpins. a name by which howling itself is sometimes known. The pins are set up so as to form a tri angular figure, at the end of an alley whose regu lation size is 60 feet in length and 42 inches in width. The aim is to bowl down all the pins in the three balls or frame which each player rolls in turn. Should the player knock down all the pins with the first ball he is credited with a strike, and may add to the 10 thus scored the number of points made on the next two balls that he may roll. if the pins all fall in two rolled balls the player scores a spare, and to the 10 thus scored may add the points gained in the next ball he may roll. When a player makes a large number of strikes and spares in a game the scoring becomes somewhat ccanplex, and a large total is quickly gained. Ten frames for each player constitutes a game. The maximum soore possible is 300, which would be gained by making a strike in each frame. For a description of the bowling games derived from tenpins he reader is referred to the various manuals on the sport. The principal games are crocked hat, cocked hat and feather. college game. Newport game, head pin game. Glen Island, seven-up, ninepins head pin out, T game, pin pool, nine up and nine down, head pin, four back, five back, white elephant, open game. seven down, and four back. Consult: ,cfpnbling's Athletic Library (New York, 1895), and ..1 merican Leaguo• Bowl ing Guide (New York).