Reply #5: Different kinds of bowling

[muriel_volestrangler]

ten-pin bowling, which most people, like the US, call just 'bowling', is exactly the same as in the USA. Similiar is 'skittles', played with nine pins and a smaller wooden ball on a shorter lane (you can fit it into a large pub).
I'm guessing you saw 'bowls', played on grass or an indoor surface, with a small 'jack' ball to aim getting your bowls as close to as possible. Same idea as curling - you hit others out of the way, block them etc. This is one of the oldest sports in Britain (dating back to the 13th century). The balls are weighted so they curl; and there is also 'crown green bowls', where there's a gentle rise in the middle of a square green to add a different way of curling the line of the bowls.

Lacrosse isn't that common, but is played a bit by both sexes.