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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Why not bowl ‘around the clock’ on fast synthetic surfaces?


I often play as lead on a team with a more experienced player, who because of a slight physical handicap, prefers to bowl on the forehand. He is right handed. I am left handed. Although I do not have a preference respecting hands, would it be advantageous for him if I also bowled ‘around the clock’ on my forehand? This would tend, perhaps, to keep his forehand side of the rink less cluttered.

What exactly is the rationale for the rule against bowling ‘around the clock’? Some coaching sources say that it gives a better control of length; but length changes each end as the jack and mat positions change. Some sources say it is so the speed of the green doesn’t vary as much or the path length from mat to jack remains more constant.  The former reason would really apply more to slow natural grass surfaces and not hardly at all to homogeneous synthetic ones. The latter reason would only apply when a standard length is being bowled end after end. I can understand the prescription not to change hands during a particular end but cannot understand why a change between ends should be a problem.  

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