Come and Play

Welcome to Swanley Bowls Clubs Website.

Bowls is a social sport, suitable for all levels of fitness. Check out our reasons why you should give bowls a try.

1) First, you need a place to play. Many bowls players are members of clubs, which provide facilities and opponents. As a club we can of course provide those facilities

2) Next, you need to know the rules. Fortunately, they’re easy to learn.

You can play singles, pairs or in teams

Bowls is played on grass (the green). A game starts by throwing the jack (a small white ball) down the green. Each team has bowls to roll towards the jack. The person who gets nearest to the jack gets a point and wins what’s called the ‘end’. The score is added up over 18 or 21 ends.
After each end, play is reversed and the teams bowl towards the other side of the green. Players can try to knock their opponents’ bowls away from the jack or position a bowl to block opposition shots. You can play singles, pairs or in teams. In singles, scoring is a bit different – the first player to reach 21 points is the winner.

3)  It's good exercise. You don't realise how much walking you do until you actually play it. You can walk three miles while you’re playing. You’re only doing 30m stints at a time, but you’re doing a lot of them. On top of the walking, your arms will get a workout as you perfect your bowling technique and your leg muscles will develop as you lunge into the throw.

4) Bowls truly is the sport for all, regardless of age, sex or physical ability. The gentle pace and lack of contact means you’ll often find children playing with adults and people of different abilities and fitness levels on the same team. Despite what you might think, it’s not just a sport for retirees.The general bowler is over 55. But in our international teams, there is barely anyone over 40. There is  an under 25 and under 18 international team as well

If you would like to know more or simply want give bowls a go then please fill in our contact form with your details and we will get back to you and hopefully you will join us for many years to come. We are always on the lookout for new members and why not bring a friend as well.