Outdoor Sports and Games

by Claude Harris Miller

This game is similar in every respect to indoor bowling except that no regular alley is used. A net for a backstop is necessary. The pins are set upon a flat surface on a lawn and the players endeavour to knock down as many pins as possible in three attempts. The scoring is the same as in indoor bowling. To knock down all ten pins with one ball is called a “strike,” in two attempts it is a “spare.” In the score, the strike counts ten for the player and in addition also whatever he gets on the next two balls. Likewise he will count ten for a spare, but only what he gets on one ball for a bonus. As a consequence the maximum or perfect score in bowling is 300, which is a series of ten strikes and two more attempts in which he knocks down all the pins. In lawn bowling the scores are very low as compared with the indoor game, where good players will often average close to 200 on alleys where they are accustomed to bowl. Lawn bowling is a different game from lawn bowls, which is described in a preceding paragraph.

LAWN HOCKEY

This game is played on a field a little smaller than a football field, being 110 yards long and from 50 to 60 yards wide. The ball used is an ordinary cricket ball. The goals are two upright posts 12 feet apart and with a crossbar 7 feet from the ground. Eleven men on a side constitute a full team, but the game may be played with a fewer number. The positions are known as three forwards, five rushes, two backs or guards, and the goal tender.

The object of the game is very simple, being to drive the ball between your opponents’ goals. The ordinary ice hockey stick will be satisfactory to play with. The principal thing to remember in lawn hockey is not to commit a “foul,” the penalty for which is a “free hit” at the ball by your opponents. It is a foul to raise the stick above the shoulders in making a stroke, to kick the ball (except for the goal tender), to play with the back of the stick, to hit the ball other than from right to left, and any form of rough play such as tripping, pushing, kicking, or striking.

Lawn hockey is an excellent game and is really the old game of “shinney” or “shinty” played scientifically and with definite rules.

LAWN SKITTLES

From a stout pole which is firmly fixed in the ground a heavy ball is suspended by means of a rope fastened to the top of the pole. Two flat pieces of stone or concrete are placed on opposite sides of the pole. The game is played with nine-pins, which are set up on one stone, the player standing on the other and endeavouring by hurling the ball to strike down a maximum number of pins. Usually he has three chances and the number of pins knocked down constitutes his score.

LAWN TENNIS (SEE CHAPTER ON TENNIS)

A game of ball played on a level piece of ground, called a court, by two, three, or four persons. When two play the game is called “singles,” and when four play it is called “doubles.” The game is played with a rubber ball, and rackets made by stringing gut on a wooden frame. The dimensions of a tennis court are 36 by 78 feet. In addition to this, space must be allowed for the players to run back, and it is customary to lay out a court at least 50 by 100 feet to give plenty of playing space. The court is divided into various lines, either by means of lime applied with a brush or by tapes. Midway between the two rear lines and in the centre of the court a net is stretched, supported by posts.

In playing one of the players has the serve—that is, he attempts to strike the ball so that it will go over the net and into a specified space on the opposite side of the net. His opponent then attempts to return the serve—that is, to strike the ball either on the fly or the first bound and knock it back over the net somewhere within the playing space as determined by the lines. In this way the ball is volleyed or knocked back and forth until one of the players fails either to return it over the net or into the required space. To fail in this counts his opponents a point. Four points constitute a game except where both sides have obtained three points, in which case one side to win must secure two points in succession.