“Curvebowl” or officially called “short mat bowls” is a variant of the English bowls sport that came to Flanders in the mid-1980s.

 

The first clubs were founded in Limburg. Short mat bowls clubs subsequently sprang up in dozens of Flemish municipalities, including Maldegem, and the sport is now primarily played in the Flemish region.

 

The game is played on a mat approximately 14 meters long and 1.80 meters wide, with a wooden block in the center. The goal is to roll a bowl as close as possible to the "jack" (a small yellow ball) across the mat without hitting the center block or rolling off the mat. Because the bowl's center of gravity is to the side, it can make a gentle curve around the center block.

 

It is a gender-neutral, challenging and highly attractive sport with a perfect mix of strategy, game insight, precision, technique, tactics, control and concentration.