Lawn Bowls Tactics: When Not to Bowl to Get Shot

There are four tactical situations in lawn bowls. The opponents will

(a) hold one or more shots or

(b) they will not

and your skipper can respond by trying to

(i) get a bowl in the count or

(ii) not get a bowl in the count.

Trying to get shot or add another shot is the standard tactical action. Some skips almost always try to get or add a shot with every bowl whether they direct it or play it themselves; so (a)(i) and (b)(i) can be regarded as really the default choices. This article treats situations where the best tactic may well be not to try to get or add a shot.

First I will address the situation where the team does hold shot and the skipper should not try to get another shot.

Situation One- If the team does not have a bowl at the back and the opposition could change from shots down to shots up if they moved the jack back, drawing another bowl on the head may not be the best strategy.

Situation Two- Sometimes when the score for the team or the side is such that a second shot will give the team no advantage whatsoever, the skip should look for and protect against any tactic that would give the opposition a useful number of bowls.

 Situation Three- Play a block. Without moving the jack back, decrease the probability that the opposition can reduce the number of shots held byyour team by seeking to obtain one or more shots blocking the path of the likely opposition bowl that will have that undesirable result.

My second section considers situations where the team does not hold shot and the skipper should not try to get shot.

 Situation Four –Sometimes the opposition holds a shot very close to, or touching, the jack. To move off this shot bowl, the played bowl will need weight that could carry it past the shot bowl. Such bowls - if they miss –commonly leave a head that will make it easier for the opposition to score several shots. Your team will risk less if it tries for second shot and delays trying for shot bowl - until later.

Situation Five - The opposition holds one shot, your team holds several second shots and it is a high percentage shot to obtain shot by pushing out the present shot bowl; however, once this happens the opposition will try to obtain the shot again. If your skip “allows” the opposition to continue to hold shot, the opposition may choose to try for a position bowl or accidentally remove its own shot bowl or fail to add additional counters. That is to say, sometimes it will be better tactically to add close bowls and delay pushing out the shot bowl until the opposition has only one or no bowls left to play. This assumes that skip is quite confident that (s)he will only require one bowl to remove the present shot and this task won’t be made too much more difficult by upcoming opposing bowls.

Situation Six- The opposition holds one shot and your team has only one or two bowls in the head. The team could try a run-through shot to push out the shot bowl; sometimes that heavier shot will result in shot bowl but sometimes it changes the head unfavourably by knocking out your own best bowls. Even though a draw shot has less chance of pushing out the shot bowl, it has a still lower probability of producing a less-favourable position. Thus, it may prove better to try to draw another bowl on the head rather than try the run-through. Because the opposition still holds shot it may become complacent. You can build the head and wait for a later opportunity to remove their shot for a good count.

Situation Seven- Sometimes it will prove better for a player to play a second or later bowl on the same hand and obtain a close bowl rather than changing the player’s hand just because the position of bowls allows the player a better chance to get shot after the change. This is particularly true with lead bowlers.

Situation Eight- Sometimes it will prove better to go one down rather than risk going for shot because an error with an overweight bowl will mean more than one down. The loss of an end by one rarely losses a match!