About Lawn Bowling

The British expatriates at Royal Calcutta Golf Club introduced Lawn Bowling in the year 1830 mainly for recreation in addition to golf. It was from the Royal that Lawn Bowling was promoted and popularized in eastern India in various clubs, tea estates, jute mills and Railway colonies in eastern India and this sport was predominantly patronized by the expats.

In April 1886, the government sanctioned the Maidan Pavilion and the Bowling section of the RCGC shifted to the Maidan Pavilion in 1887. A fine bowling green had been laid down in front of the Pavilion for the members and the Club could now boast of fifty pairs of Bowls. A year later appeared the first news of a bowling match between the Calcutta Golf Club and the Howrah Bowling Club. Unfortunately Calcutta was handicapped by the fact that the occasion clashed with a competition organized by the Gun Club. Several bowlers, who were also marksmen, who had been counted upon to represent Calcutta, were unable to do so due to the competition organized by the Gun Club. Hence only three teams could be mustered. The final score was Howrah 33, Calcutta 25.

Since their inception in the early 19th Century, several such Vintage Bowls Championship have been organized and continue to being held even today. The tournaments like Brakenridge Cup, Howrah Jack, East India Rinks etc. have being regularly organized for over a hundred years. Such wonderfully crafted rolling trophies, of immense heritage value, are prized possessions of the club. These trophies are still used for the tournaments and add to the importance of these events. The legacy of the lawn bowls carries on via these competitions conducted at the Maidan.

Apart from the fourteen regular club tournaments, two other major Lawn Bowls event are organised by RCGC annually. These two events are the Merchants Cup Lawn Bowls Tournament and Inter Club Lawn Bowls Tournament which have now been conducted for the last thirty one and twenty nine years respectively. In 2015, The Royal Bowling League has been added to the list of annual tournaments and was indeed a very popular event!

Lawn Bowls has been a part of Commonwealth Games and the National Games for the last few years and a considerable number of our members have represented the country and their state in these events.