Vices and Skips Seem to Worry Too Much about that Early Shot Bowl

Remember:  this blog is written by a novice lawn bowler who is just half way through his second year playing in tournaments so my impressions may be faulty and in need of correction and that correction is encouraged using the comments section.

I played in a mixed triples tournament at the Agincourt Lawn Bowling Club in Scarborough Ontario Canada last Sunday. The green was beautifully cut and rolled and it played very fast; as fast as the synthetic surface at my home James Garden club. If I had realized just how similar it played earlier in the day, we might not have lost that first match. But that is not what my main insight was that day.

It seemed to me that both we and our opponents spent too many of our bowls trying to hit and dislodge early shot bowls that weren’t impossible to beat with simple draw shots. Once a bowl was 8” or less from the jack everyone but the leads seemed to be trying to hit ‘jack or bowl’ with yard-on shots through the head or drives targeted to breaking up the head entirely. The result was a lot of near misses that went to the back of the rink or into the gutter. Meanwhile, the team that had the advantage of this closest early bowl was oftentimes making the situation much worse for the attackers. If it is the last two ends and you are behind, I can see that aggressive action is called for, but I am talking here about general play in the match.

My median draw bowl (the bowl that has equal numbers better and worse than it) when delivered on the James Gardens’ green is 52” from the jack. Even so that leaves quite a few that pass within or come to rest within 8”. Vices or skips will be substantially better than I am. Wouldn’t it be better strategy to just continue with everyone grassing their best draw bowls for a bit longer? Even if that early close bowl ends up being shot, it is only down one and those draw shots substantially improve the chances that the deficit will not be more than one.

Does this make sense or not?