Choosing the Bias of Lawn Bowls based on your Bowling Activity

At my home lawn bowling club in Canada there is a trend for new bowlers to use narrower, less-biased bowls. These bowls are thinner through than older bowls; they turn less; and have a more gradual curl rather than a hockey stick hook when they slow down.

My home club, James Gardens in Toronto , has only a single green. It is a compressed sand-packed synthetic plastic material about 10 years old. The club  has no natural grass green. Our surface is regarded as the fastest in Canada and most comparable to the grass in much of Australia. I most often bowl at James Gardens because it is within a three-minute drive or a 15-minute walk from my condo apartment. My coach encouraged me to try different bowls borrowed from the club at first but I didn’t make much use of the opportunity. I have large enough hands to easily encircle a number 4 bowl: thumb tip to thumb tip and index finger to index finger as introductory books advise. I took the heaviest bowl I could easily handle because I didn’t want my bowls to be knocked about by the opposition more than could be avoided. Actually (as I found out later) the weight of bowls doesn't contribute as much to keeping them from being moved as whether the bowl is tipped over or not.

Because my home green is so fast one must take a lot of grass. I found that when I used more biased bowls my aim-point on the front ditch would be on another rink. Consequently, when the green was busy, as in a tournament, people walking about or changing ends distracted me or blocked my aim-point. Also, with more biased bowls there is more risk of a collision with bowls on an adjacent rink during simultaneous deliveries and although such an occurrence is rare, close calls are more frequent and can upset one's concentration. For these reasons, I chose narrow-biased bowls, Taylor Vector VS, in my case.

 My coach also offered the justification that, since I would be a novice for the next four years and would play lead in competitions, there would be not much need to go around anything on my way to the jack. In any case, I am a left-handed bowler and it seems that I will be less likely to be blocked by short bowls thrown right-handed since the release points are likely to differ. The lead bowler in a team has relatively unimpeded draw shots towards the jack. The average number of bowls that are present at this point in the end is 4, with fewer at the beginning of the end and more at the finish. Bowls that finish behind the jack do not block later shots. Bowls that end up shorter than the jack can block access only to a meager extent when there are still few of them. Because they are narrower in profile and tend to stand up on edge more often they do block less but narrow bowls standing on edge present less of a target to hit. 

Nevertheless, I must say, wider bias bowls give more of a thrill. It can never be mundane to see that bigger curl coming into the head! My coach incidentally warned me that when I started playing matches on slower surfaces, some opponents would consider that I was somehow cheating because of the reduced bias.

Because I have decided to play regularly in tournaments I have subsequently also joined a club that has two grass greens as well as a different type of synthetic surface. I found it necessary to have unrestricted access for practice on a slower, grass surface. These are still the most common greens in Canada. I typically needed only one-half the ‘grass’ that was necessary at James Gardens LBC. 

So far I haven’t had any opponent complain about the narrowness of my bowls but I guess that only happens when you win!