Carpet Bowls Equipment

Bowls World supply a wide range of carpet bowls equipment to customers in the UK, USA, Australia and Europe.

We sell a large range of carpet bowls mats and bowls, as well as other useful accessories such as jacks, centre blocks, mat storage bags and carpet marking tape.

A set of carpet bowls and mat are unwieldy items to carry away from a shop and so ordering from our online shop and having them delivered is a convenient way to buy, especially since our prices all include free postage within the UK.

Carpet Bowls Equipment – click here to buy online

Find out more about carpet bowls equipment below.

About Carpet Bowls
Carpet bowls began around 30 years ago as a way of being able to play indoors but in a smaller space. It allows bowls to be played regardless of the weather and without requiring a large indoor green. The playing area is just 6 feet by 30 feet, usually marked out by a special mat which is laid on the floor. (Carpet bowls is not to be confused with Short Mat Bowls, which is played on a different size carpet with larger bowls.)

This has made it especially popular in rural areas, enabling communities to get set up with minimal cost and facilities. So long as you have access to some kind of indoor space as a village hall, and a set of carpet bowls equipment, you can play carpet bowls. This makes the game very portable, enabling different spaces to be used at different times, depending on availability. The game can be played by all ages and is especially accessible to people in wheelchairs since the bowls are lighter and need to travel less distance, which shifts the balance of the game more towards skill than strength.
So far, carpet bowls is played only within the UK. But although the game may have started as an informal solution to bad weather and lack of space, it has developed fast and there are now many active county leagues (Durham, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire , Norfolk and Suffolk) and a National Championships tournament.

The object of the game is the same as for lawn bowls: to get your bowl closer to the jack than your opponent’s. Teams can be any size up to 4 players, so that singles and doubles matches can be played, as well as teams of 3 or 4. More details about the sport and specific rules including details of carpet markings, can be found at the English Carpet Bowls Association website.

Carpet Bowls Equipment

The main items of carpet bowls equipment required are a mat (‘the carpet’), a centre block, a set of bowls and a jack. Additional accessories can be useful, such as mat storage bags. We sell all these items in a variety of makes.

A carpet bowls mat is usually made of flexible rubber, latex or some other combination of synthetic materials with a green bowling surface, and many are designed to be rolled up for easy storage and transport. Mats can cost several hundred pounds but are designed to be highly durable and will last many years. A mat has to be marked out in specific ways to indicate the centre of the mat (so a centre block can be accurately placed) and where the jack should be placed.

We supply several different types of carpet by Verdemat and Wygreen, offering different thicknesses and playing surfaces. Some mats are medium paced and some are fast paced – the faster paced carpets are suitable for expert players or for the higher level competitions. Our most popular roll-up mat is the Verdemat 30ft Carpet available in Medium or Fast pace.

The bowls used for carpet bowls are shaped and biased in a similar way to regular bowls, but are much smaller, being just under 4 inches in diameter and are made to a standard weight. The other key difference is that individual players do not use their own bowls, but instead share a set of bowls, which must all be made by the same manufacturer, to ensure consistency and fairness. Carpet bowls come in sets of 16, 8 of one colour and 8 of another, and teams toss a coin to decide which team will play which colour bowls. This makes outlay costs for individual players low or zero, once the main equipment has been purchased.
Since all carpet bowls are made to the same weight and shape, the choice between one set and another often comes down to colour preference. The traditional colour choice is black and brown, but more colour options are becoming available.

We sell standard carpet bowls by Taylor (Black/Brown), Drakes Pride (Black/Brown) and Henselite (Black/Yellow). If you want something more colourful, Drakes Pride offer a choice of any combination of colours from Red, Yellow and Blue.

Home carpet bowls is becoming increasingly popular also, so we also supply a set of Henselite Home Carpet Bowls, which includes 8 bowls, 4 green and 4 blue, and a jack.

A centre block is used in the middle of the carpet to prevent players just bowling down the middle of the mat. This changes the game into something a lot more interesting and skilful. The block is usually made of wood and its shape can vary providing the overall width is always 18 inches. A circular block is the most common shape, but bars and diamonds are also used. Bowls World stock a circular and bar shape block.

Carpet Bowls Equipment – click here to buy online