When One Hand has No Bias in Lawn Bowling

While skipping my team in an interclub match played on an end rink, I discovered that one hand had no bias at all. A bowl directed down the center line that normally would be expected to move from left to right stayed straight all the way. This occurs when the natural bias of the bowl is perfectly compensated by a slight uphill slope of the rink on that hand.

Usually I offer a team-mate playing lead the choice of which hand to bowl. My reasoning is that the bowler’s peace of mind regarding the shot to be played is usually more important than some slightly improved theoretical probability of success from one side or the other. In this case, for the first time in my life, I said, “I insist that you bowl this narrow side.”

If the path from mat to jack is straight, the first short bowl completely blocks that side of the rink. To give away to the opponents the first chance to bowl that side can shut that side down for you for the full end.

In my experience this odd situation  always arisen on an end rink and is accompanied by a very wide hand as the alternative (and also usually a very heterogeneous one).