CWG 2022-Lawn Bowls: The Indian Lawn Bowls team has scripted history by clinching gold in the women's fours final at Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 on August 2, 2022.

Key Highlights:

• This is India's first medal in the sport.
• The Indian lawn bowls team - Lovely Choubey, Pinki Chaudhary, Nayanmoni Saikia and Rupa Rani Tirkey defeated South Africa by 17-10 in the final of the women's fours event after 15 ends.
• They have become the first Indian athletes in CWG history to win a gold medal in the sport.

About Lawn Bowls Game:

• Lawn bowls, also known as lawn bowling, is an outdoor sport.
• It is a mix of ten-pin bowling and curling winter sport.
• It is one of the oldest sports at the quadrennial Commonwealth Games competition.
• It has been a Commonwealth Games sport since the inaugural edition of the event's precursor, the 1930 British Empire Games.
• It consists of a ball (known as a bowl) that is rolled toward a smaller stationary ball, called a 'jack'.
• The bowls are also called 'woods' as they were originally made of wood, but are now made with composite plastic as it helps the bowls last longer.
• Also, lawn bowls are not perfectly round as their one side will be slightly bigger than the other, this is known as the 'bias'. 
• The sport is generally played on a flat lawn, about 40–42 yards (37–38 metres).
• The main objective in lawn bowl is to roll one's bowl in such a manner that it comes to rest near to a smaller ball, which is known as jack or 'kitty'.
• The bowls needed to be rolled on the floor from a distance.

How is lawn bowl played?

• The lawn bowl is a team sport that begins with a coin toss.
• The toss winner takes the first turn while the other team rolls the small ball called the 'jack ‘towards the opposite end.
• The jack needs to travel at least 23m.
• The distance between the jack and starting point is decided with this roll at the start of the match.
• The two competitors will take turns bowling, trying to get their lawn bowl closer to the jack than any of their opponents.
• Points will be awarded for each bowl that reaches closest to the jack.

What are the different formats of lawn bowls?

• Lawn Bowls has four formats – singles, pairs, triples and fours.
• All the formats are named after the number of people in each team.

Rules of lawn bowls:

• A lawn Bowler has to roll their bowls from one end to the other with the aim of hitting or getting closest to the jack.
• In Lawn Bowl fours, each team will get 8 throws or rolls from one end to another.
• One end means completion of 1 round.
• The team with maximum number of points after 15 ends wins.

India’s previous record in Lawn bowls at CWG:

• India lawn bowls teams took part in 2010, 2014, and 2018 editions of the Commonwealth Games before the 2022 event.
• India has managed to reach the semi-finals just twice and has finished fourth on other occasions.