I have read that 90% of the natural lawn bowling greens in Canada run below 12
seconds. On such slow grass, the aiming angle for a draw shot is tight. With
most bowls, one is aiming close to the boundary marker at the front ditch. A
bowl that is sitting in the normal draw just 14 meters in front of the mat can
block many shots intended to disrupt the head.
Surprisingly in four years of bowling, I had never seen this intentionally
attempted.
Last Thursday night at the Etobicoke LBC I was skipping a triples team and when
I arrived at the mat for my deliveries my side was holding three close shots
with a few other bowls out front, blocking one of the approaches to the head.
My opponent had last bowl. Three times I delivered very short bowls just over
14 meters out from the mat. (Any bowl that does not travel at least 14 meters
is dead and must be removed from the rink.) The first two of my bowls may have
caused the opposing skip to miss his takeout shots. His third bowl hit one of
my blockers. The result:-+3 for my side! Furthermore, I didn’t risk damaging the
head with my own bowls.
To deliver a bowl just over 14 meters I have found that I simply let my bowling
arm hang vertically at my side, place my advancing foot in its normal forward
position and then push out the bowl on its intended line without moving either
foot. If your normal aim point is the boundary marker, the aim line should be
slightly off-center and away from the side of the rink where you want your bowl
to finish.
One of the unexpected advantages of such a short blocker is that for many
bowlers the blocker is in their field of vision as they look down the rink to
their aim point and is an annoying distraction even if the blocker is somewhat
misplaced away from the actual draw line.
This tactic only has a chance to work on slow greens where both it is
difficult to ’use the mat’ to get around a short bowl and when one side
of the rink is already risky for the opposing skip. When these two conditions
are not present it is still a better play to put your bowls behind the head as
‘catchers’ or cover a/the respotting position(s).
I was skipping a team. It was 10-10 in the last end. We were sitting one. I played a 14 meter block to prevent an on shot from the opposing skip. He used a drive, hit the head and ended up shot to win the game. I should have paid more attention. He had previously used drives to get out of trouble several times. My block should have been aimed more to the center of the rink.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of an attempt at a short blocker occurs in the 2014 Australian Men’s singles Championship involving Brett Wilke. The shot is played just after 1:26:11 in the Youtube video.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly the commentators believed that the blocking bowl needed to travel 21 meter when in fact it only needs to go 14 meters according to the world Bowl’s rules.