As you become involved in the sport, it becomes apparent that there are a huge amount of organisations which seem to run the sport.
The intention of this page is to guide you through these organisations & their hierarchy.
In the men's game, the organisations that run the sport of bowls have the following hierarchy.
As well as being arbiters of the Laws of the Sport of Bowls,
World Bowls run the Commonwealth Games bowls competitions and the World Championships (each of which are competed for every four years).
England is represented in these tournaments by selected representatives of the English Bowls Association (E.B.A.).
In the U.K., the 6 country associations, of which the E.B.A. is one, are additionally affiliated to the British Isles Bowls Council (B.I.B.C.).
Annually, the B.I.B.C. championships are competed for by each national champion from the previous summer.
Also, the England national team competes annually against Scotland, Wales & Ireland for the B.I.B.C. Senior International Series.
The E.B.A. constituent members represent the counties of England, of which Nottinghamshire, to which the club is affiliated, is one.
The county champions (and in some cases both county finalists) go forward to represent their counties each August in the E.B.A. National Championships at Worthing.
The national champions from Worthing going on to the following season's B.I.B.C. championship.
Each county, also compete as a team in other competitions such as the Middleton Cup.
As well as being affiliated to the E.B.A., Notts. E.B.A. are additionally a member of the Midland Counties B.A.
This is an association of clubs in the Beeston area who run annnual competitions for member clubs & their players as well as open tournaments & friendly fixtures.
The above is purely the organisational hierarchy for the men's outdoor game.
There are additional organisations that handle the women's outdoor game.
These are additionally affiliated to World Bowls but
are typically represented at national level by seperate organisations
(in England this is the
English Women's Bowls Association).
It should be noted that there are additionally organisations which run the Indoor game, both men's
(the EIBA
) & and women's (the EWIBA).
Bowls is also a sport where the differently-abled are equally accomodated.
For instance, the The English National Association for Visually Handicapped Bowlers
, and The English Deaf Bowls Association
Also, this list doesn't include organisations for alternative Bowls codes,
i.e. those run by the English Bowls Federation (E.B.F),
or the British Crown Green Bowls Association, both of which have no international recognition.
And then finally, there's the pro circuit (the stuff that gets a couple of hours a year on telly),
run by the Professional Bowls Association
& World Bowls Tour.
