An Open Letter to New Bowlers after Open House

A Real Game

Last Saturday, I was one of the club coaches at the James Gardens Open House. I met quite a few new people who all could become pretty good bowlers. All seemed to enjoy it. They realized, “I can do this.”

But many, maybe most of them, I predict are going to quit after their first real game. Not because they can’t roll a bowl up close to that little white ball but because they haven’t learned the terminology, the etiquette, the hand signals, the team member responsibilities or the basic rules yet. And if they don’t learn these things before they try to play a real game with experienced club members, they are going to be embarrassed or even spoken to unkindly;( even though we try to prepare our members to look out for the ‘newbies’).

 That first day Open House instruction is intended to answer the question, “Could you play a reasonable game of bowls.”

We aren’t burdening beginners with all the rules and responsibilities stuff. That we save for the subsequent lessons. But if these tyro bowlers think they can learn the rest watching bowls on Youtube, they are on the way to problems. Top bowlers on the tube speak little (since it is usually singles). When it is a team game, they know their signals. There is a dashed line down the center of the rink to help center the mat. They have a special official to center the jack. The score is kept for them and they don’t need to rake bowls. All in all, no help for a prospective novice lead bowler.

So if new folk want to enjoy bowls, they need to learn the details; the non-physical stuff  That is what volunteer coaches teach in lessons after that first one. However, no matter what I write some people won’t come out for it. For them I have tried to write down a bit of this theory and practical stuff. I have augmented a Wikipedia article.

Lawn bowls is, almost always, played on a large, rectangular, precisely levelled and manicured grass or synthetic carpet surface known as a bowling green which is divided by imaginary lines into narrow parallel playing strips called rinks. The game can be played between two individuals or between teams of two to four. In the simplest competition, singles, one of the two opponents flips a coin to see who wins the "mat" and begins a segment of the competition (in bowling parlance, an "end"), by placing the mat and rolling the jack to the other end of the green to serve as a target. Once it has come to rest, the jack is aligned to the center of the rink and the players take turns to roll their bowls from the mat towards the jack. The object of the game is to finish each game segment or ‘end’ with bowls closer to the jack than the opposition

A bowl may curve outside the rink boundary into the rest of the green on its path, but must come to rest within the rink boundary to remain in play. At the front and back of the long narrow playing surface are ditches. Bowls delivered into the front ditch are dead and are removed from play, except in the event when one has "touched" the jack on its way. "Touchers" are marked with chalk and remain alive in play even though they are in the ditch. Similarly if the jack is knocked into the ditch it is still alive unless it is out of bounds to either side. When this happens at our club the jack is "respotted"on the center of the rink two meters from the front ditch and the end is continued. After the competitors have delivered all of their bowls (four each in singles and pairs, three each in triples, and two bowls each in fours), the distance of the closest bowls to the jack is determined (the jack may have been displaced) and a point, called a "shot", is awarded for each bowl which a competitor has closer than that opponent's bowl that is nearest to the jack. For instance, if a competitor has bowled two bowls closer to the jack than their opponent's nearest, they are awarded two shots. The exercise is then repeated for the next end, bowling back in the opposite direction on the rink. A game of bowls is typically a preset number of ends.

A new lawn bowler at James Gardens LBC will at first be a participant in a game between teams of three players each. The new bowler will deliver the first three bowls for his or her side. The team leader called the “skip” will ask the new bowler to try to deliver each bowl as close to the jack (the white ball) as possible. Once the lead has rolled three bowls (s)he has no further responsibilities in that ‘end’.until all the bowls have been delivered and the score on the end is determined.

Each player on the team has particular assignments to promote the flow of the game. Besides rolling three bowls, when his/her team has possession of the mat, the lead is required to both place the mat and center it, at whatever distance from the back ditch the skip decides, and then roll the jack to the length the skip calls for  At the completion of an end, if his/her team losses the end the lead rakes the bowls together behind and to the right of the new mat position. If his/her team has won the end, the winning lead immediately collects the jack and starts setting the mat for the next end.

If the new bowler bowls a bowl that is close to being out of bounds it is his/her job to signal to the skip whether that bowl is inside or outside the rink.