Round Robin Play at Lawn Bowls

During the summer I was involved in the Mens’ Novice Pairs Ontario Provincial Championship. The first day of this tournament is a four team round robin in which the best two teams advance. There are only three possibilities for the outcomes among four teams in a round robin 3:2:1:0, 2:2:2:0, and 3:1:1:1. 

In such a playdown, two things are important:  first, winning at least two games if possible, and second, having high ‘points for’ in games among teams that end up tied with you. Regular strategy applies in the first two games. You play your best percentage shots trying to either win or keep the margin of loss slim.

But notice that in such a round robin, thirty three percent of the time you can advance even if you win only one game, so long as your ‘points for’ are enough! So, if, after you have played your first two games, you still have not had a win, your only chance is to win your final game while at the same time building up your ‘points for’.

 If you have been badly shut down in your earlier matches, you need lots of points in your final game; therefore, you must expose your side to extra danger whenever it will improve your chances of have big ends. If those extra risks cause you to lose a third game, you haven’t lost much. Most probably you were going home anyway. 

Using a Cocked Wrist in the Lawn Bowl Delivery

While I was watching Nev Rodda’s video teachings the shooters’ stance, I realized that my wrist position was different. The way I was holding the bowl in the claw grip, my curled fingers were close to being in a straight line with my forearm. Nev, on the other hand, held the bowl in what he described as a scoop, with the wrist cocked and then locked at that angle so that it was his thumb that was on the straight line which can be imagined extending down the center of the forearm. It was not that my hand/forearm connection was not locked during a delivery but my locked position was not the same as his.

The way I had been holding the bowl required it to roll off my fingertip(s) onto the green. With the Nev Rodda wrist position, removing the thumb pressure releases the bowl which simply drops a few centimeters onto the carpet, because, using the claw grip in the scoop position, the fingers are at the back of the bowl rather than under it.

Because the bowl is no longer rolling off the fingers, it is less critical where the fingers last contact the bowl, although at least the middle finger should still be centered on the running surface since it pushes at the back of the bowl.

In 2020 I changed my view and wrote a blog about the reason.