Indoor Bowls For Short Mat Bowling?!

Whilst I’ve been a short mat bowls enthusiast for a good few years now, my bowling days actually started out playing crown green bowls; which I still play now during the summer months.  (I have to get some sun else my pasty complexion would be a lot worse if I was an indoor bowler all year round!) 

Because of this, I’ve always played my short mat bowls games using my crown green woods – as do many players who compete in the same leagues here in the West Midlands.

However, a few years ago, the team I was playing for at the time invested in some stronger biased indoor bowls and gave them to our 2 skips.

Bizarrely, one or two opposition players felt that we were cheating in some way, as we had bowls that pegged more than theirs – a view that probably came about from being a staunch crown green bowler first and foremost, and not being fully aware of the various types of bowls there are. 

I can’t help having a chuckle about this even now; the fact that somebody objected to us playing indoor bowls using…well…indoor bowls!

Maybe it had more to do with the 4 league titles that we notched up following the introduction of our new woods!

Anyway, I’ll stop my bragging and get to the point of this post. I thought it would be a good idea to shed some light on the rules regarding the type of bowl you are allowed to use in short mat bowling. Put simply, you can use practically any type – short mat, flat green, indoor rink and crown green. The ESMBA (English Short Mat Bowing Association) probably puts it better than I can in the rules section of their website.

So there you have it. Short mat bowls can be played with a variety of types of bowl. And according to the ESMBA, your set of bowls do not even need to match! With that in mind, anyone up for a game of short crown indoor bowls?!