Another Reason to Draw Your Bowl Behind the Kitty

 Keywords: lawn bowls, tactics, strategy, delivery, draw, shot, competition, short, long, bias, tipping over, jack, weight

Novice lawn bowlers are frequently reminded that drawing long behind the jack is strategically better than being short and in front. The usual reason given is that when the jack is moved by a later bowl that movement is almost always backwards. Short bowls are very likely to end up further from the jack when the final count is taken. There is another very good reason that can be precisely quantified. Short bowls, when they tip over, usually fall away from the jack. Long bowls tend to fall down so that they end up closer to the jack. The amount the former moves closer  and the latter further away is exactly the same; that is 3 .5 inches. The result for two bowls, one that draws so that its centre of mass ends up 1 foot behind the jack and the other so its  centre of mass ends up 1 foot in front of the jack, is that after each tips over, the back bowl will be 7 inches closer than the front one! In competition this will often make a difference .