Maple Key Obstacles on the Bowling Green

This week, the James Garden lawn bowling club’s synthetic green is covered with last year’s maple seeds (called keys) that the swirling wind has blown all over the surface from the nearby park trees.

Maple keys have a thin flat wing portion that lies flat on the ground and will not disturb the path of a bowl, but each seed also has a hard round part, like a little ball bearing, that will not roll but can distinctly change the path of a lawn bowl and can stop it dead when the bowl has slowed down.


Although these seeds can be swept up, more keep blowing in if there is a wind, and those already on the green keep moving from one place to another. These add an extra obstacle to competitive bowling. Some people say that bad greens are just as bad for everybody but this is not true. Bad greens penalize better players more. The more random luck that is introduced, the more likely the poorer team is to win a match.

In the presence of maple keys littering your rink the best strategy is to throw short jacks and drive at the jack if you get down several bowls in an end. The maple keys don’t throw off fast moving drives to the same extent and if you try to draw to save there is a good chance your bowl could be sent off course by one of these seeds.