Lawn Bowls that Back Up

 

A good lawn bowler recognises the characteristic path that any lawn bowl takes as it rolls down a level rink. It is recognition of that particular curving trace that allows a bowler to visualise the correct delivery before making it. This visualisation enables control of line and length.

Sometimes, however, as one watches either one’s own or someone else’s bowl travelling, it seems to deviate by going straight for some distance or even curving the wrong way. This is often referred to as ‘backing up’. The late great David Bryant would say that there seems to be a straightener on the green.

What actually is happening? Why does it appear to affect some deliveries but not others? And how should we adjust when we see it happening?

A useful clue is provided by another instance of backing up, where we can see the cause. Sometimes where weather has softened the green or at clubs where there is a high risk that some members are damaging the green by improperly dumping their bowls, ground sheets are put down at both ends of the rink. Where these are put down, sometimes a bowl en route to the jack encounters the edge of one of these ground sheets, with the result that the bowl runs along the edge of this ground sheet rather than proceeding in its normal curved path towards the jack. The edge of the ground sheet has straightened that bowl’s path. The edge of the ground sheet has presented a small ridge too high for the bowl to climb over.

Exactly the same thing is happening when one sees a bowl back up on the green. It has encountered a ridge on the rink. The only difference is that in this case, the ridge is too well camouflaged to see.

‘But,”’ you might say, “surely there are these unlevel ‘ridges’ all over the playing surface, yet, I almost always see a smooth curving path  for my bowls.”

Yes, there are irregularities everywhere, but you will only see a ridge in a bowl’s path large enough to be noticed as a ‘back up’ when 

1. The ridge is longer and straighter than average, and when 

(ii)  the asymptote to the curve of your bowl is parallel to the ridge where they come close together. 

This can be better understood with the diagram above.

One rarely detects a lawn bowl ‘backing up’ during the first part of its travel; it is from the point where it has moved its widest on the rink and subsequently begins curving back towards the jack that this aberration is seen. The reason is that when just out of the hand, the bowl has enough energy to overcome any ‘ripples’ in the flatness of the playing surface, and it is these imperfections that ultimately cause the ‘back-ups’ or ‘straightening’ that we see.

What to Do About It

When you observe a bowl backing up, no matter whose bowl it is, your conclusion should be that you don’t want to have the same problem. So you need to do something about it. This may be as simple as bowling on the other hand. This is the most certain way to avoid the risk; however, this is not always an option. A less disruptive option is to change the position of your feet on the mat so that your bowl does not travel on as wide a path. The goal, here, is to get on the inside of the ridge, as in path B in the diagram. 

It is always possible that your bowls will not interact with the ridge in the same way as the unfortunate delivery you observed. The closer the profile of your bowl model is to that of the model that is being disturbed, the greater the risk that you will encounter the same problem. 

Playing Weighted Shots (or Drives ) for Club Lawn Bowls Players

 

 For a long time, I have resisted writing a blog article about how to play weighted shots.

Nevertheless, recently I have seen some club-level players miss wildly trying to hit a tight head, even at a short or medium distance. My own technique does not work for the longest jacks that require a delivery from T to T. My method is not the cannonading power drives on sees on UTube that go straight down the centre line and smash bowls in all directions, even sending the jack out of bounds or into the ditch. A good proportion of the time, my method will move bowls about and frequently will send the jack backwards multiple meters.

The technique I will describe can be applied when the head is situated between the hog line and about halfway towards the forward T. My method does not require a harder-than-normal delivery. All deliveries using this method employ the same weight; the weight you use for delivery to the longest jack, from T to T. This is at or just under ditch weight.

To explicate the theory for this method, please examine the accompanying figure. The large rectangle represents a bowling rink. The centre line of that rink runs from the small square at the bottom of the figure to the point labelled C at the top of the figure. You will see three curves in the figure. These curves are all of identical shape. The only difference is the angle, representing the aim angle, at which they are delivered with respect to the centre line. 

The right-most curve represents a regular draw delivery with the weight required for a T-to-T delivery.

The curve second from the right is the path of the same bowl delivered with identical weight but with half the aim angle used for the draw shot. Notice where its path crosses the centre line (X): halfway between the hog line and the forward T. If a cluster of jack and bowls were situated at that point, they would be scattered by that delivery!

The left-most curve represents the path of the same bowl delivered with the same weight but with one-quarter the aim angle used for the draw shot. Notice where its path crosses the centre line: at the hog line! If a cluster of jack and bowls were situated at that point, they would be scattered!

In summary: delivering a bowl with the same weight as a long T to T draw shot but with an aim angle between one quarter to one half the draw angle can break up a cluster at a head from the hog line to halfway further on towards the forward T. 

Note: The Ts are the points on the centre line that are 2 meters from the ditches.

The Benefits of First Bowl Behind the Jack at Lawn Bowls

 

Your first bowl in every end is the most difficult as regards length. For that reason, one should err on the side of putting it consistently behind the jack. For some reason, it seems to be easier to take a bit of weight off so that your subsequent deliveries are on the jack. At the same time that first back bowl provides useful options throughout the end. In a YouTube match, Mark Armstrong against Harry Coleman at Victoria, Australia, Harry delivers every first bowl except one behind the jack in his 21-up victory 

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2xXj21lHYk&t=4958s ].

About Bowling Round the Clock at Lawn Bowls

‘Bowling round the clock’ means delivering one’s bowl either always forehand or always backhand. This results in bowling one side of the rink for the odd ends and the other side of the rink for the even ends.

Many lawn bowls instruction or coaching materials discourage this practice. For example:

Do not play “around the clock”, …. the variation does not allow the greatest consistency, and the team will be disadvantaged, and head-building will be adversely affected.

After the first two or three ends, choose the side of the rink that is playing evenly in pace and green, and thus gain a tactical advantage over an opponent who bowls “around the clock”.

It is not recommended to bowl “around the clock”….  as the grass is usually different on each side and so too can be the pace.

You should avoid playing “around the clock,” …. because this promotes inconsistency as you are effectively playing both sides instead of the most favorable one.

 

None of this makes any sense at all to me. A lawn bowling rink might be tilted or flat. It might play to an even weight on both sides or be different in this respect. It might have ridges that disturb bowls in some locations and not others. But whatever its characteristics, your starting assumption should always be that for odd ends it will play in some characteristic fashion and for even ends in another characteristic fashion.  You will be better off to take as your starting hypothesis that you are playing on two separate rinks; one in a first direction and a second in the second direction.

Your proper challenge is to find, as quickly as possible, which side is best for the odd ends and which side is best for the even ends. Then, whether it results in playing one side of the rink preponderantly or playing ‘round the clock’ more often, that should become your tactical choice. 

 

What a Left-handed Lawn Bowler Should Consider

A left-handed lawn bowler has some advantages. Such person mostly competes against right-handed opposition. Right-handed players much less frequently face a left-handed bowler. For the left-handed player, the situation is regular. For the right-hander facing a left-hander is not the 

norm. This has at least two strategic implications.

First: when the left-hander is required to bowl before a right-handed opponent, at the beginning of a game on an unfamiliar rink or at an unfamiliar length during a match, he or she can stand on the mat so that the opponent cannot follow the same line. To do this, the left-handed bowler takes a position at the left-most edge of the mat so that the delivery line passes through the back left corner of the mat for a forehand and over the front left corner for a backhand. These positions are illustrated in the figure above.

 Second: if a right-handed opponent delivers a back-hand draw and encounters a run in the green that causes that bowl to back-up, The left-handed bowler delivering a fore-hand (for that bowler) is likely to suffer the same fate because the handed-bowler will be delivering a bowl most likely wider than the opponent’s and that bowl is likely to encounter the same ridge in the green (the left side of the top figure). There is, therefore, a strong incentive to change hands.

If it is a forehand that the right-handed opponent has delivered and that has backed up, the left-handed bowler can be somewhat less worried. Because the left-hander’s bowl can be delivered closer to the centre-line, it is less likely to get caught on the outside of the ridge and directed away from its normal path (the right side of my topmost figure). There is still some risk to staying on the same hand, but it is less. That bowl may be able to draw inside the ridge.

Notice that a ridge only causes a problem in the portion of the rink where a bowl is slowing down. Ridges in the portion of a rink closest to the mat do not appreciably change the path of a bowl because, at the outset of its travel, a bowl has enough momentum to push across a ridge with little distortion of its path. It is when a bowl is slowing down and curving in towards the jack that a ridge can cause a substantial disturbance. 

When to Change the Length and Mat Position at Lawn Bowls

 

Sometimes you will be playing other singles players or other teams that completely outclass you or yours. I acknowledge that in these cases, there is no tactical move that can realistically win for you. In that situation ( on the rare ends when the option is yours ), choose the jack length and mat position most comfortable for your side and try to make the head tight by executing your best deliveries.

BUT- when the game is competitive; that is, when there is no more than four points dividing the teams, stick to your predetermined strategic plan for the match unless your side observes something in the opponent’s game that suggests an even better plan.

HOWEVER in a close match, if your side falls behind by five points or more after at least three ends, if you do not change jack length, mat position, or both, when you get mat possession, you are not doing everything possible to win your match, and you deserve to lose!

Do you think this is obvious? But I see it all the time with teams of club bowlers and in inter-club matches. Players know they can change the mat position. They know they should carefully deliver the jack to a preferred length. But they doggedly keep sending medium-length jacks from the two-meter mark until the almost inevitable loss is consummated!

The Case For Dead or 'Burnt' Ends at Lawn Bowls

Before the advent of televised lawn bowls, the rules allowed for what were called ‘dead’ ends. If at any point during the delivery phase of the end, the jack was knocked out of bounds, then play stopped, all the bowls and the jack were taken back, and the end replayed from the beginning. Whichever side possessed the mat in the dead end, retained the mat.

Such was the accuracy of the world’s best bowlers that this made matches among them of completely unpredictable duration. Many ends were ‘burnt’ and had to be replayed and towards the finish of a match an end might be ‘killed’ over and over.  This was called burning or killing the end and it made televising lawn bowls impossible because producers could not even approximately predict what time allotment they should schedule for a match.

Because elite lawn bowlers wanted their matches popularized by television, lawn bowling authorities changed the rules, for the most part eliminating dead ends. Henceforth, if a jack was driven out of bounds rules required that it be replaced at a designated spot on the rink and play was continued.

Because amateur sports enthusiasts generally try to play the same way as the best in their sport, clubs started adopting this same ‘no dead end’ practice even though the necessity of meeting the demands of television did not apply for them. 

I will argue here that this rule change has had some negative and unintended consequences and that burning or killing an end should be restored to the game whenever mass broadcasting is not an issue. In the case of tournament play, where games cannot be unduly prolonged for the sake of overall tournament scheduling, each team should be entitled to a small fixed number of burnt ends per match. I propose that two burnt ends be allowed per team/per match.

Why should we go back to allowing dead ends at all?

First: Allowing burnt ends permits a tactic that enables competitors who are on the verge of losing a match to preserve a chance to recover. No team will have realistically lost until its last bowl has been delivered because with that last bowl the end could be burnt and the entire end replayed. This increases the suspense in the lawn bowling sport and enables more games to be close games.

Second: The best defences against opponents burning an end thereby preserving their chances to come back and win are:

• delivering long jacks from a mat at the back T ( harder to be accurate over a longer distance ) and
• delivering short jacks that get spotted on the forward T ( the jack is more likely to be knocked into the forward ditch than go out the side of the rink )

These defences require that leads be able to deliver the jack an accurate length without ditching the jack. This means more skill is required to bowl well. The game becomes more challenging- more fun.

 Third: Returning the most aggressive shot in lawn bowls to the game instantly makes it more attractive to younger more athletic players. Aren’t these the very people we have been wishing would be more attracted to our game? 

Why Top Bowlers Tuck in One Knee During their Delivery?

 

For the past dozen years, when I looked at pictures of the top professional lawn bowlers delivering lawn bowls, I was mystified as to why they tucked the knee of their anchor leg (the one that stayed at the mat) behind the knee of their stepping leg (the leg that moves forward as they deliver a bowl). Then one day recently, while I was practising my delivery motion (without a bowl!!) in the hall of my condominium in Portugal, I found myself doing it.

Why was I now doing this? Let’s see whether you would also. 

Stand with one foot on an imaginary mat, with that foot at 45 degrees to the proposed line of delivery (as in the shooter’s stance). The line of delivery should run about 5 inches from the toe of your anchor foot.

The heel of your stepping foot should be level with the toes of your anchor foot, but about a foot away from the aim line. Your weight is essentially completely on your anchor foot. The stepping foot is only touching the ground for balance. The toe of your stepping foot should be pointing towards a spot on your aim line about 3 to 5 meters in front of you.

Rest your non-bowling hand gently on the thigh of your stepping leg.

Now slowly pull your bowling arm back along the aim line like it is a pendulum holding an imaginary bowl, and then step forward a foot towards that stare point on the aim line. Now, let your arm containing the imaginary bowl hang down beside the advanced stepping foot. When I do this, my hand is still a couple of inches above the ground. 

Now I lower my body to bring my hand to the ground. How do I do this lowering?  To my amazement, I do it automatically by tucking the knee of my anchor leg in behind the knee and ankle of my stepping leg. 

Why had I not recognised this before? The answer— because I was not lowering my body enough— I was dumping my bowl these last centimetres onto the green. Most top bowls delivered their bowls right onto the ground and they achieve this by tucking in that knee!!