Selecting a bowl is a very personal thing and everyone has a view on how to choose the right size and weight. Although some say green speed should be taken into account*, here at Bush Hill bowls we think that’s the least important criteria, particularly for new bowlers.

Instead, comfort in the hand should be your prime consideration. The bowl wants to feel almost as if it isn’t there 
– no anxiety about it falling out when you make a slow pendulum swing, no feeling that it’s going to pull your shoulder out of its socket.

Again, some people say one way to get the right size, shape and weight is to wrap both of your hands around the widest running surface of a bowl so that your middle fingers touch at the bottom and your thumbs touch at the top. That’s a good starting place, but really you want to be holding the bowl in one hand as you would for delivery, and then check the comfort and anxiety factors!

* A faster green means that the bowl needs to be rolled to take a lot of grass (rolled toward the jack in a wide curve ) which makes the bowl take 14 – 19 seconds to reach the jack. Conversely on slower greens the bowl should be rolled to take much less green (in a slight curve), which means the bowls take less time to reach the jack say 10 – 14 seconds.