Short Mat Bowls

Short Mat Bowls has been played at the club for many years with three teams in the Torbay League, playing on a Monday/Tuesday evening, but since the clubhouse extension, there is now room for two mats and on a Wednesday evening there is a chance for other members of the club to try their hand at this slightly different form of Bowls. There is an interclub league with twelve teams playing each week with a trophy at the end of the season. Each team play as a 'Triple' for 15 ends therefore the game takes just over an hour.

A Quick Guide to Short Mat Bowls

Short mat bowls is very much like the outdoor game of lawn bowls with so many of the rules being adapted from the rules of the outdoor game with the basic aim being to deliver as many bowls as possible near to the jack as possible..

The Torbay League games have a format as below, whereas the club league only plays as a Triple.

Each match can be played as a team with four diciplines as  detailed below or as in the case of our club league, just making use of one discipline, the triples. You play against an opposing team of a similar make up with the object of the match to score as many shots as possible. Each player delivers his/her wood alternately to their opposite number, playing in order position i.e. one, two, three or skip (as the case may be). In the middle of the rink is a block of wood which must not be touched when the wood is in motion and the bowl must travel a certain distance and stay within the confines of the marked areas.

Singles - 4 woods per player

Pairs - 2 or 3 woods per player depending on the type of match

Triples - 2 woods per player

Fours - 2 woods per player

The Mat

A pre-marked mat is normally 6 feet wide and between 40 and 45 feet long. A white wooden block is placed on the line across the centre of the mat. This block prevents direct firing shots down the middle of the mat and forces the use of a wood’s bias, at least until the jack is moved to the outer edges of the mat during play. At each end of the mat is a wooden fender which defines the limits of the ditch area and provides some protection to the players (and the hall!) from heavily bowled woods. At the beginning of each end a rubber delivery foot mat is placed in the pre-marked central position at the end of the mat that an end is to be played from and the jack is placed on the centre jack line at the opposite end of the mat.