No one ever speaks about the history of bowls without referring to Sir Francis Drake, playing at Plymouth on 19th July 1588, when Captain Thomas Flemming advised that the invading Spanish Armada had been sighted off the Lizard. His response has gone down as one of the most famous lines in history: "There is plenty of time to win the game and thrash the Spaniards too". However, almost 300 years earlier, the Southampton Bowls Club green is reputed to have been laid and in regular use since 1299. Chesterfield Bowling Club claims their rink dates from 1294 and, certainly in the early part of the 14th century, Edward III banned the playing of bowls so that the 'Bowman of England' would practice their archery. It does seem that bowls has not always been associated with the gentle art as we now know it, and during its early years the game was prohibited and quite high penalties could be levied by magistrates, if anyone broke the prohibition.

There is no real evidence as to the style of game, although during the reign of Richard II, bowls was then referred to as "gettre de pere" presumably Norman French for "jetter de pierre" and so obviously describes throwing a "stone". So there is not much doubt that the original bowls were made from stone. They would be as round as possible, nothing like the shape we now use. Sometime after 1409, we do not know the actual date, bowls of wood were used, made from Boxwood, Holly, Yew or Oak. It is presumed that Lignum Vitae was introduced in making of bowls during the 16th century, after the discovery of the Santo Domingo in 1492. Santo Domingo is in the Caribbean Sea, where the best Lignum Vitae is sourced, which is still true to-day.

According to anecdotal evidence, the introduction of bias to the design of bowls seems to have been by accident. It is said that in 1522, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, whose bowl split in two on striking another bowl, rushed into the house and took off the spherical knob from the banister post to provide himself with a replacement bowl. The flat cut then caused his substitute bowl to roll with a bias. Observing this effect, the Duke experimented by curving his bowl around others. He passed on his knowledge to his friends, and so, in the course of time, biased bowls came into general use.

Later, bias was produced by loading the bowls on one side by inserting weights, and some players think that this is still done today; so it is that even now we occasionally find bowls, which have been brought in for renovation or re-adjusting, to have been loaded by inserting metal or lead on one side of the bowl.

To bias by loading in this manner is no longer permitted by the rules and the bias is now produced entirely by the shape of the bowl. In fact with the bowls made to todays very tight specifications such loading would cause the bowls to perform erratically, a similar problem to a car wheel that is out of balance. Further information about bias will be covered in other articles.

Prior to 1871, the bias of bowl was not stipulated and a test of any kind was unknown. The bowls were entirely hand-turned and finished in the absence of any testing method. It was impossible for bowls turners to make bowls which could be accurately matched. Every bowl was different and indeed matching bowls were not expected by the players.

In 1871, Taylors of Glasgow constructed the first testing table. The idea was to allow the company to produce matched bowls from the factory rather than waiting for the customers vague comments as to their requirements.

A test table allowed the production of bowls that perform on the test table (note the wording "on the test table") in a given manner and Taylors specified these as number I through to number 5 bias, number I bias being the weakest and number 5 the strongest. When the Scottish bowls association carried out their testing, they were then able to agree and thus adopt in 1893 the number 3 biased bowl as their standard.

There are many bowlers who will remember the reference to number 3 bias, which was still regularly mentioned up to a few years ago. Crown green bowlers will also note that their standard was selected using the same five biases and that the number 2 was considered not strong enough, but number 3 bias was too strong. Thus, 2 full or slightly stronger than 2 bias was selected. It is uncertain as to the date when the crown green bias was first selected.

Most modern test tables are based on using standard billiards/snooker tables, because of their rigidity of construction and the accuracy of level that the slate bed can achieve. In the Hensel booklet "The romance of a bowls manufacture" it mentions the fact that W.D. Hensel tested bowls originally on a standard (l2ft) billiards table, but in 1908 developed the 36ft table. This basically would be achieved using three full-size billiards tables.

In 1928, the I.B.B. (International Bowls Board, now the W.B.B. World Bowls Board) laid down the basis for table testing. The specifications, with a few amendments, are basically still true today. For example, the bowls should still run approximately 28 feet, the maximum draw shall be approximately 4'6". However, one important addition to the specifications is that the running time should be between 12 - 15 seconds. - Peter N. Clare - Director of Drakes Pride