The history of bowls has been traced back to the ancient Egyptians. It is believed they played with stones - probably selecting small round ones that weren't any good for building pyramids with anyway. The English, of course, wanted to machine perfectly spherical ones from fine lumber they obtained from remote parts of the empire.

Bowls remained spherical (more or less) until one day, when someone's bowl split in two. He used part of a banister railing ball to replace the broken half; this led him to the discovery that he could now bowl curved shots and sneak around other bowls near the jack. With this recognition, the sport of bowls was forever changed; today, all bowls have a built-in bias.

In Italy, the sport of lawn bowling became "bocce", which is still played with spherical bowls. In France, it became "boile". In England, it continued to be known as "lawn bowls," or sometimes just "bowling."Bocce Balls. In France it United States, it became ten pin bowling, a far cry from the current game, which apparently did not make the trip safely across the Atlantic.

However, we do know know Sir Francis Drake played bowls; in one famous game, he told his men not to worry about leaving the game unfinished. He said it could easily be finished before he took up arms against the invaders - the Spanish Armada. Drake was victorious over the Armada in what was, perhaps, his most famous victory.

Now, most bowls and bowling equipment comes from Australia or England where the sport continues to be extremely popular; lawn bowling's popularity in the United States is a small fraction of its popularity in Australia or England.

Below are two historical photos of the Santa Monica Lawn Bowling Club.