One of the six original sports at the Commonwealth Games, bowls will take on a new format at Glasgow 2026 as it heads indoors for the first time.
The sport has featured at every Games bar the 1966 edition in Kingston, and is in many ways synonymous with the Commonwealth Games.
Having always been played outdoors, it will head inside as the Games return to Glasgow with seven gold medals up for grabs in all – four in bowls and three in para bowls.
Where is it taking place?
Bowls will be one of four sports that will be hosted at the SEC Centre, alongside 3x3 basketball, boxing and judo.
This marks a change from previous editions of the Games where bowls has always been held outside, including at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre back in 2014.
The atmosphere is expected to be electric with four games being played simultaneously with music to add to the excitement.
Dates at Glasgow 2026
Such has been the interest in bowls at Glasgow 2026 that there has been an extra day of competition added.
As a result, the action at the SEC will begin on 23 July with a session on Day 0, starting at 9.30am local time before the opening ceremony that evening.
The action begins with the men’s singles, the women’s pairs and the mixed pairs B2-B3 in the para bowls.
The medals for those three events will be decided on 28 July before the start of the men’s pairs, the women’s singles, and men’s pairs B6-B8 and women’s pairs B6-B8.
Those events will run all the way through to 2August when the four remaining gold medals will be won.
Team England’s history
Team England have enjoyed great success in bowls over nearly a century at the Games, winning a record 55 medals including 21 gold medals.
At Birmingham 2022, the team won both the men’s and women’s triples, as well as bringing home silver medals in the men’s and women’s pairs and three further bronze medals, of which two came in the para bowls.
English success in bowls began at the very first Games in Hamilton, Ontario, when they took all three gold medals, with men’s pairs champions Tommy Hills and George Wright retaining their title four years later.
England’s most successful bowler is David Bryant, who won four successive singles titles between 1962 and 1978, also triumphing in the men’s fours at his first Games.
What are the rules of bowls?
Bowls is all about precision, with the bowlers looking to get their bowls as close as possible to the jack – the small white target ball.
The jack is rolled at the start of each end, and once everyone has finished their bowls, whoever is closest wins the points. Points are awarded for each bowl closer to the jack than an opponent, so if a bowler has the two closest bowls, they would score two points.
There are four bowls medal events, the women’s and men’s singles and the women’s and men’s pairs.
Para bowls follows a similar format with events featuring bowlers with physical disabilities and visual impairments.
There will be three events, the men’s pairs B6-B8, the women’s pairs B6-B8 and the mixed pairs B2-B3
Who is competing for Team England?
The bowls team was the first to be named by Team England for Glasgow 2026, with a number of returning champions.
Nick Brett was part of the men’s triples that won in Birmingham and is joined by men’s pairs silver medallists Jamie Walker and Sam Tolchard.
The three-strong women’s side is headlined by Sian Honnor, a gold medallist in the women’s triples in Birmingham, eight years after she had won the same event in Glasgow.
She is joined by Amy Pharoah, at her fifth Games, and Katherine Rednall, the seven-time world indoor champion.
Eight athletes have been named in the para bowls squad with Joe Peplow and Helen Wood set for their Commonwealth debuts in the B6-B8 category. Peplow will join Kieran Rollings in the men’s pairs, while Wood links up with Michelle White in the women’s pairs.
Meanwhile, the B2-B3 mixed pairs will see Ron Homer and Sally-Ann Lewis-Wall combine, alongside their respective directors Sue Davies and Elizabeth Shipley.
