A Lawn Bowl Blocks More than its Size

Often your skip will direct you to bowl away from the side of the rink where an opponent’s bowl blocks the approach to the jack (called ‘in the draw’); particularly, when that bowl is close enough that, if hit, it could be advanced close up to the jack. As leads or vices, we may be disinclined to change sides, because we might have already found the correct grass or even a good aiming mark there. Nevertheless, we need to be aware that an opponent’s bowl blocks more than just its own cross section. If even a small portion of your bowl hits that blocking bowl it will be thrown seriously off-line. The actual space excluded by that standing bowl is between 2 ½ to 3 times its diameter. Put another way the standing bowl blocks a cross section of 12 ½ inches perpendicular to the path of your bowl! It is also highly likely that, if you hit a bowl standing short of the jack, it will be moved closer to the jack. If your shot is too weak for that, your own bowl will be stopped dead and prevented from entering the head.

In contrast, if you deliver your bowl  as requested from the opposite hand, you have the added chance to wick off that standing bowl, if it is fairly close to the jack moving it away from the jack. Furthermore, your bowl may wick closer depending upon how you hit that opposition bowl. Being directed to the opposite hand allows you an unimpeded road to the jack with a chance to dislodge the opposing bowl or trail the jack away from it.