Bowls

is played in the open in the summer on beautifully kept bowling .greens with big black wooden balls. The aim is to get the ball as near as possible to a little white ball (the "jack") placed about the length of a cricket pitch away from them. The art of the game consists in taking into account the fact that the ball being bowled ("the wood") is not properly balanced — it has a "bias". This ancient game is played mainly by middle-aged people, often in municipal parks.
A number of cinemas have been turned into bowling alleys providing entertainment for the whole family in the winter months.