Names for Lawn Bowling Shots

Newcomers to the game of lawn bowls will have a better understanding of tactical considerations if they know the names for the different shots that can be attempted at bowls. Below is an alphabetic listing with synonyms where they exist.

Back Bowl: 

A bowl usually out of the count but closer to the front ditch; this bowl may contend for shot if the jack is moved backwards in the head. Back bowls have much more of a chance to get into the final count than short bowls.

Backest Bowl:

It is the back bowl closest to the ditch. 

Blocker: 

A bowl that may interfere with opposing efforts to get their bowls close to the jack by resting in the expected path for their delivery; therefore, a block shot is a short bowl. A bad blocker is a wasted bowl. Blockers usually have more psychological than actual value.

Chop-and-Lie also called Tap-and-Lie or Wrest:

A bowl delivered with about two feet overweight that it is hoped will hit another bowl, turn it away, and take its place.

Cover Bowl:

When a game is played under rules specifying no dead ends but rather respotting of the jack, a cover bowl is one intended to finish close to a/the respot position in anticipation of the jack being driven out of bounds. When such a bowl is delivered the bowler is said to be ‘going for cover’.

Draw:

A bowl delivered on a line and with a weight trying to end up closest to the jack; the draw shot is the most frequent shot in all of lawn bowling.

Drive also called a Runner:

This is a bowl delivered with sufficient force that the bias has minimal effect so that it runs fairly straight; it is a somewhat desperate shot delivered hoping to kill the end or radically change the head, when the other side is ahead by several shots in the end. If a runner does not hit its target it will end up in the ditch.

Firm Wood also called a Timing Shot:

An overweight shot played narrower than a draw but not velocity such that some bias is evident; the bowl is intended to stay on the rink even if it misses its target. The shot is a more gentle version of the drive.

Plant: 

A shot delivered in the special situation where two bowls are touching; any contact with the shorter bowl will send the second bowl away precisely along the line connecting the two bowl's centres.

Positional Bowl:

So-called because it is a draw shot intended to end, not near the jack, but at a particular location on the rink chosen for tactical reasons.

Rest:

A bowl that in its course usefully comes up to and rests against another thereby holding it in a specific place.

Runner (see Drive):

Running Shot (see Drive):

Run through Shot:

A variant of the ‘firm wood’ in which a bowl is delivered with several yards of weight to strike several bowls sitting in front of the jack; the bowl is intended to disperse the short bowls and continue moving to end near the jack.

Shot Bowl:

This is not a type of shot; the 'shot bowl' is that bowl sitting closest to the jack, as the head is disposed.

Tap-and-lie (see Chop-and-lie):

Timing Shot (see Firm Wood):

Trail:

A bowl that hits the jack so that both bowl and jack are moved backward, more or less together. When the jack is hit and the bowl goes in a dramatically different direction from the jack the bowl is said to have "sliced' the jack.

Wick:

A bowl that hits another in its travel and is deflected to a position it could not otherwise reach.

Wrest: (see Chop-and-lie or Tap-and-lie)

Yard-on:

This shot is directed against an opposition bowl calling for an overweight shot to displace it. The shot can also be used to promote a bowl of your own team that is short of the jack. The overweight is not necessarily a yard but whatever is needed to accomplish the objective.

Your Skip May Want to Accept a Jack that is Actually Too Short

When an opponent throws a jack that appears not to have travelled the requisite distance from the front mat line (21 meters in Australia and Canada), your skip might not raise an objection. Similarly, you as lead may deliver a jack that is actually too short and the opponents may say nothing. A short jack may be what your skip wants.  When the opposing skip raises no objection that jack, after being centered, will be played to. Neither you as a lead nor any other team member, should say anything. If asked by your skip how far the mat is from the rear ditch, you should give a good estimate but make no comment about jack length. According to the World Laws of Bowls, Third Edition, once the first bowl has been rolled the jack length cannot be disputed.

As part of good team communication it would be good to quietly draw a teammate’s attention to the shortness of the jack before he or she rolls your side’s first bowl. In a singles match, it is the marker who is responsible for making sure the jack length is at least the minimum length.