{"id":381844,"date":"2026-04-16T03:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381844\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T03:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T03:42:11","slug":"five-in-25-lawn-bowls-fast-new-format-aims-to-lure-young-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381844\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Five in 25\u2019 lawn bowls: Fast new format aims to lure young players"},"content":{"rendered":"

He says it has been inspired by the success of T20.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came to me at 1.17am one night,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

\"GaryGary Lawson is a 14-time national champion. Photo \/ Stuart Whitaker<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a faster version, like there\u2019ll be a little bit of music on the sideline – not that sort of head-banging music, but just to create an atmosphere that might make it enticing for a new generation of bowlers to give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Five in 25 concept is that competitors will play five ends in 25 minutes with a total of 17 bowls per player. It\u2019s a singles format.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn three of those ends, a bowler gets three bowls. But on two ends, which are predetermined \u2013 they have to nominate those before the game starts, they get four bowls,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a tweak to the scoring. While the system remains the same as traditional bowls, there\u2019s room for a power play that rewards accuracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you hit the jack and you win that end, you get double the points that you would have scored on that end. If you hit the jack but lose the end, you at least get one point,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

\"BenBen Harris.<\/p>\n

Lawson supports the idea of trying to attract younger people to the sport \u2013 a recruitment drive that has been successful across the Tasman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game for young people, but it\u2019s a game that anyone can play. There\u2019s a lot of young people playing now, but the more we get, the better. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s probably a lot more young players playing in Australia, you look at their Under-18 [ranks] in secondary school tournaments, they get hundreds in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SelinaSelina Goddard will compete for New Zealand in the women’s pair at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Gary Lawson says the format for that event will be sets play, which makes the sport “more viable for television”. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

The new format will make its debut at an event at the Papanui Bowls Club in Christchurch tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The first competition will be between club players but Lawson believes the speed of the game will appeal to more social bowlers \u2013 and is a sign of where the sport is heading.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s time\u2019s becoming more precious and we\u2019ve seen shorter versions of the game, with Bowls3Five a real success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowls3Five is a triples format played over two sets of five ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the tournaments now are sets play, you know, in the Commonwealth Games, for example, it\u2019s two five-end sets in the pairs, seven-end sets in the singles. It\u2019s what makes it more viable for television.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"5in255in25 is a new lawn bowls format being trialled in Christchurch. Photo \/ Supplied.<\/p>\n

If Five in 25 proves successful, Harris hopes to see events at clubs throughout Canterbury and New Zealand. <\/p>\n

Mike Thorpe<\/a> is a senior multimedia journalist for the Herald, based in Christchurch. He has been a broadcast journalist across television and radio for 20 years and joined the Herald in August 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He says it has been inspired by the success of T20. \u201cIt came to me at 1.17am one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17311,4886,82007,12796,85412,222,117716,1342,158511,71,102275,78,85414,23336,117,111,139,69,10702,213,195005,61,4741,80],"class_list":["post-381844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-17311","tag-aims","tag-alltime","tag-approval","tag-bowls","tag-fast","tag-fastpaced","tag-five","tag-format","tag-from","tag-greats","tag-in","tag-lawn","tag-lure","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-players","tag-sports","tag-tick","tag-to","tag-young","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}