Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls

At Bowls World we sell a good range of Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls, with a wide range of colours, including multi-coloured and speckled. Colours are available in all the Drakes Pride regular ranges: Advantage, Professional and Jazz and, more recently, their Fineline range, making coloured bowls suitable for beginners and pros alike.

The price of Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls is largely comparable to the other major manufacturers, making them highly appealing to the general bowls player.

Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls – click here to buy online

Find out more about Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls below.

What are Coloured Bowls?
It’s hard to believe, but barely 10 years ago, all bowls were black – at least those used at any kind of formal or official event. This originated in the way that bowls have been manufactured since the 15th century, from dense woods that have been lacquered and polished to produce a naturally dark brown or black colour.

But nowadays most bowls are made from synthetic materials. This allows bowls to be manufactured to a high degree of consistency in terms of weight, shape, bias etc. It also means they can, in theory, be made in any colour, while their playing properties remain exactly the same.

It’s taken some time for coloured bowls to be accepted in normal play, but since 2001 or so they have been accepted, subject to individual local club rules.

Given the average age of bowlers (thirties and forties) who are quite at home with a wide variety of colours for all kinds of consumer products, it was probably inevitable that interest and demand for coloured and multi-coloured bowls would be accepted eventually. Manufacturers have been keen to meet demand, since the “bowl as fashion accessory” offers the prospect of a bowler wanting to buy multiple sets of bowls or replace them more frequently.

All the leading manufacturers – Henselite, Drakes Pride, Taylor and Almark – now make coloured bowls. The sheer range of Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls available shows that this particular manufacturer has thoroughly embraced this trend.

While some still worry about what coloured bowls mean for the traditional image and values of the game, it seems likely that the benefits of coloured bowls far outweigh the possible damage. They provide additional visual distinctiveness between players or teams, which is much easier to see from a distance compared to traditional bowl stickers. This helps the players themselves as well as aiding the development of bowls as a spectator sport (and great for TV too!). It also improves the image of bowls as a thriving contemporary sport, helping to bring in new blood.

About Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls

Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls are available in all their standard ranges (Advantage, Professional and Jazz) in a wide variety of colours and sizes.

The following colours are available for all sizes: Red, Mid blue, Maroon, Speckled Magenta/Red, Speckled Blue, Speckled Maroon and Speckled Black/Red. Two new colours – Purple/Dark Blue and Magenta/Red – were added in 2010, but these are available for heavy weight sizes 00 to 4.5 only. Size 5 is also available in a choice of Speckled Blue, Speckled Blue/Maroon or Speckled Blue/Yellow.

And of course, Drakes Pride Bowls are all still available in black too!

Drakes Pride Advantage Bowls

This is a narrow handling bowl with a unique shape making it the ultimate bowl for the faster indoor rinks and particularly those notoriously difficult narrow end rinks. It is therefore best suited to experienced players.

Predominately a leads bowl, it has a very narrow draw, giving you the most direct line to the jack legally possible under current regulations. This makes it ideal for very fast playing artificial surfaces, either indoors or out. It can come with dimple grips or plain.

Available in heavyweight only, sizes 0 to 5, whole sizes only, and in a good range of colours (see order page for full range of colour options).

Drakes Pride Professional Bowls

This is the best selling Drakes Pride Bowl and for good reason. It produces a medium draw which is steady and constant and has an easy to read line – all qualities which make it appealing to beginners and pros alike.

It will play well on almost any pace surface you throw at it (or you throw it at!) making it a good choice for someone who like to stick with the bowls they know but needs to switch between playing surfaces frequently. Overall it’s a good all-round bowl that can be used for any position of play and by any level of player.

Available in medium & heavyweight, sizes 00 to 5 and some half sizes to order, dimple gripped or plain, and in a good range of colours (see order page for full range of colour options).

Drakes Pride Jazz Bowls

Added to the Drakes Pride range in 2009, the Jazz bowl has proved a popular choice especially for younger newcomers to the game. It has a modern design and a much wider draw than either the Advantage or the Professional (the extra “swing out” perhaps inspiring the name). This makes it more suited to outdoor play, but still has the constant draw line of the Professional. A good choice for beginners but its consistency makes it appealing to the professional too.

Available in Heavyweight only, sizes 00 to 5, whole sizes only, and in a good range of colours (see order page for full range of colour options).

Drakes Pride Fineline Bowls

The Drakes Pride Fineline Bowl is the most recent addition to the Drakes Pride range, and its reputation was sealed almost instantly, when Robert Weale used it at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, to win his gold medal.

Its draw is in between that of the Professional and the Advantage, making it a bowl most suited to the more experienced player. Existing owners of the Professional who are thinking about taking their game to the next level are likely to find the Fineline bowl a tempting choice as an upgrade since its handling is almost the same as that of the Professional.

So how is it different to Professional? Apart from the narrower draw, the Fineline’s design includes a “balanced arc sole shape” makes it a stable bowl with a good finish at the jack. It also features Drakes Pride’s new Forty Dimple grip, which is both attractive and functional.

Available in sizes 00 to 4, heavyweight only and a good range of colours (see order page for full range of colour options).

Drakes Pride Coloured Bowls – click here to buy online