Lawn Bowling Strategy and Tactics for Playing on End Rinks

Since the Vilamoura LBC here in Portugal shut down, the number of bowlers at the roll ups at  the  Valverde club in nearby Almancil has ballooned. All eight rinks are in use regularly. As a consequence, many more people end up playing on end rinks, where one boundary is only a few feet away from the side ditch. I was challenged by one of these rinks this week.

Although my team won the match, we lost two big ends where the opposition scored first five and then three shots. Analysis, after the match, suggested that these ends had something in common. In each instance, the opposition had the mat and  had  rolled a first bowl that blocked the draw from the more playable side, away from this ditch. In each of these ends I had changed  hands and attempted  deliveries that ran close to the ditch. None of these bowls ended within a meter of the jack. What had started out badly finished badly for my team.

The lesson seems to be that I should  have remained on the more playable hand; shifted my foot position on the mat, if I thought it would help, and tried to bowl around the apparent blocker. Even if my delivery were to collide with this troublesome bowl most likely the  impact would clear a path for subsequent bowls both mine and those of the rest of my team.