That Foot on or over the Mat: Crystal Mark Three

Foot-faulting is Still Possible

I played mixed pairs against a more experienced skip yesterday. After the match, he said, “Stand on the mat as you do when you are ready to deliver a bowl.” When I did, he pointed out that my anchor foot was only partially on the mat. My heel was off the mat. The ball of my foot was on.

“In a playdown  ( Ontario Regional Competition) you would be called for foot faulting,” he said.

“Not according to the new Crystal Mark Third Edition of The World Laws of Bowls,” I told him. “It only requires part of a foot to be on or over the mat at delivery.”

This is an important point. Many more experienced bowlers were brought up with the old foot fault rule: one foot must be entirely on or over the mat.  Bowlers, like myself, who have adopted the ‘shooters’ stance’ will have a greater tendency to have the anchor foot partially off the mat, because that foot is not lined up parallel to their aim line. In any case, calling foot faults was always a tedious business. Whether a player has a full foot or a partial foot on the mat is not going to make a difference to any game’s outcome. The rule exists to confine bowlers to essentially the same starting place for deliveries and this is preserved by the new rule.

Furthermore, the new rule presents more opportunities to ‘use the mat.’ This is the practice of changing the position you are standing on the mat to make small adjustments to your final bowl position, so long as you can repeat the previous delivery exactly.