Page "Bowls" Paragraph 13

A bowl may curve outside the rink boundary on its path, but must come to rest within the rink boundary to remain in play.

Bowls falling into the ditch are dead and removed from play, except in the event when one has " touched " the jack on its way.

" Touchers " are marked with chalk and remain alive in play even though they are in the ditch.

Similarly if the jack is knocked into the ditch it is still alive unless it is out of bounds to the side resulting in a " dead " end which is replayed, though according to international rules the jack is " respotted " to the centre of the rink and the end is continued.

After each competitor has delivered all of their bowls ( four each in singles and pairs, three each in triples, and two bowls each in fours ), the distance of the closest bowls to the jack is determined ( the jack may have been displaced ) and points, called " shots ", are awarded for each bowl which a competitor has closer than the opponent's nearest to the jack.

For instance, if a competitor has bowled two bowls closer to the jack than their opponent's nearest, they are awarded two shots.

The exercise is then repeated for the next end, a game of bowls typically being of twenty one ends.