Lawn Bowling Tactics; Moving the Ground Sheet- Moving the Mat

At some lawn bowling clubs in Canada, groundsheets are permanently put down at the mat end of the rink except for special championship matches. The Etobicoke Lawn Bowling Club, one of the clubs to which I belong, is one of these. I understand how this protects the greens and avoids embarrassment for those bowlers who would otherwise make regular divots in the surface. It is not too heavy a price to pay. It respects the diligent work of the volunteer greens tenders.

It should not, however, discourage skips who believe that a strategic advantage can be had by moving the mat. There is a rule that the front edge of the mat must slightly overlap the back edge of the groundsheet, meaning that mat and groundsheet must move together. In Canada, because groundsheets are not just put down when it is necessary to protect particular damaged areas of the rink, there is a national rule that groundsheets may be moved, without the greenskeeper’s permission, up and down the green as required to position it-- so that the mat will go where the skip who controls the mat wants it. 

Nevertheless, the inconvenience of moving both groundsheet and mat before starting every end is a real disincentive to adopting this tactic. It should not be. It is not necessary to move mat and groundsheet a big distance to obtain a benefit from this tactic. Just moving them together one or two mat lengths forward will change the path the bowl follows. Furthermore, by making this change your side is asserting itself, taking charge of the end, and increasing respect for your team vis-a-vis ordinary social bowlers. If the opposition wonders aloud whether what you are doing is legal, all the better. Whatever authority is in charge will confirm your right in the matter. If there is a referee invite the objectors to consult him or her.

When the end is finished, do not offer to move the groundsheet back to the two-meter mark. Leave it to the skips to decide; besides, you expect to win the next end and use the same mat position in the one subsequent as you continue to win ends!

Many skips are accustomed to playing over the groundsheet at the head end of the rink. Other skips will want to take up this groundsheet and then relay it when the end is complete. Accommodate the opposing skip in whatever suits him or her.

 It is not a requirement to pick up the groundsheet at the skips' end of the rink simply because the jack is being delivered past it and closer to the forward ditch. In fact, this is routinely accepted when the groundsheet is in its standard location and the jack has been rolled to within 2 meters of the forward ditch even though it is this configuration that most often causes visible interference with good draws to the jack. If the groundsheet at the skips' end is up nearer the hog line and the jack has been delivered long there is actually less chance of groundsheet contact with a normal draw shot. Nevertheless, many opposing skips will want to take the groundsheet up in this situation. If it makes them more comfortable, I suggest that you readily agree to this also.

When moving the groundsheet up the rink it may be useful to mark where its corners sit with chalk. This way returning the groundsheet to the same location will be simplified for subsequent ends. But even if you don't do this, remember that it is not actually necessary that the groundsheet be either completely straight or perfectly centered so long as the mat itself is properly centered with respect to the rink's center-line. 

Those club players who play open tournaments infrequently, typically bowl varying-length jacks all from a mat at the T.  For some reason, it is my experience that women club bowlers are the most easily disturbed by mat/groundsheet movement. To give your team the greatest legal advantage you should choose any configuration different from the one with which they are most comfortable. Don't let groundsheets take away this valuable tactic that is totally within the rules.

A Strategy for Playing Triples at Lawn Bowls

In order to win an end of lawn bowls a head must be built that will provide a chance for the skip to convert the head with his/her last bowl if the side is down. For the skip to be down multiple bowls in the head with no realistic way to change it is anathema.

Lead’s Play

In order to protect against this situation the lead should deliver no short bowls! Trying to assure that all lead bowls are behind the jack is more important than gaining shot. The next most important object is to have at least one good second. The lead’s first bowl in the end must therefore be delivered with the greatest margin for error. If necessary it can be aimed to end up 1-2 meters behind the jack just to be sure that it is not short.

Vice’s Play

With most strategies it is the lead who can afford to play with the bowls with the least bias. According to my personal view it is the vice that needs the narrowest bowls. The role of my vice is: first, to place bowls behind or next to the jack and obtain a good second, if the lead has failed in these objectives; then, secondarily: if the lead has met these objectives, the vice should try to rest bowls on whichever bowls are closest behind the jack, no matter which team has these bowls. Bowls resting on other bowls already behind the jack will necessarily beat the bowls they rest against. Moreover, a bowl touching a bowl behind is locked in position and usually cannot be driven out. Delivering such  a chop-and-lie or resting bowl is most easily done when the delivery path is as straight as possible. This is why my vice’s bowls should be low bias. So long as the lead has kept bowls behind the jack, narrow bowls should still be able to find some clear route into the head.

If the opponents are lying shot and there are two or more bowls blocking the front of the head my vice will often be called on to play a weighted shot to clear out blocking bowls in keeping with the overall strategic objective of giving the skip a high probability path to the jack.

Skip’s Play

The skip should use large, heavy, wide-drawing bowls. These bowls are what  may be required to draw around blocking bowls, draw close to the re-spot position at the back, trail the jack, or drive the jack out of bounds. If the opponents have the last bowl and are up bowls in the head before your side’s last bowl, as skip I must  not only try to convert the head but must place that bowl where it is dangerous for the other side to try to drive it off. 

Henselite Supergrip Championship Bowls

By the middle of October most Canadian lawn bowling clubs have officially shut down. In Toronto, Etobicoke LBC which has two grass greens had its last games October 13^th.  Nearby, James Gardens LBC with just one synthetic carpeted green is officially closed but unofficially open for practice and self-organized games if you know the combination for the lock on the shed.

I have been comparing some of the bowls sets that I own with other bowls sets that have been donated to the club for the use by tyro players. In particular, I have looked at an old set of size 5 brown Henselite SuperGrip Championship bowls. Today, bowls bigger than Size 4 are unpopular at James Gardens compared to the heyday of lawn bowling.

In 1959, Henselite introduced an improved powder compound with a ‘Super Grip’ additive, designed to give the polymer bowl a better feel in the hand and provide bowlers with a better grip on the bowl.  Also, before 1960,  Henselite bowls were not machined with a dimple grip. Bowls with 'Super Grip’ were called the Henselite Championship model. The additive has remained a feature of all subsequent models. This particular bowls set was approved for use on South African greens (these bowls are marked S.A.B.A.) which can be particularly hard and so fast running because they can contain up to 30% clay.

These bowls when tried out clearly have more bias than my Vector VSs or Aero Sonics. The hard sand packed carpet at James Gardens runs 16-17 seconds and on the wide hand one’s aim point on the front bank can be as wide as the further boundary marker on the adjacent rink!  Nevertheless, I can show, by placing a plastic pylon at the shoulder of the bowl’s arc, that it only traverses a few feet into the neighboring rink. Although many bowls seem to threaten to disrupt the neighbor’s head the actual risk is very occasional and mostly threatens to hit unimportant wayward bowls and a very rare displaced jack.

In exchange for the annoyance of having players on the next rink blocking your aim point these bowls seem to offer more line stability than either of my favorite bowls sets. This can be expected to be particularly true when the wind is strong. Indentations on a lawn bowls surface can act like little windsocks. A bowl without grips, such as these Champion Supergrips, thus has reduced wind resistance and is less likely to be tilted by the wind. It is this tilting that seems to most substantially change the path of a bowl in the wind. Tilting is also more exaggerated the harder the bowling surface because the actual area of bowl surface in contact the playing field decreases the less the surface deforms with the weight of the bowl.  A bowl nestling in short grass is held more upright than the same bowl sitting on a thin synthetic carpet with no under-pad. The slower the green, the less bowls delivered on it are affected by wind.

A heavier bowl can also expect to be more stable in the wind. My Henselite weighs 4 ounces more than my Vector and about 3 ounces more than my Aero.

My plan is to use these Henselite Supergrips to play some matches at James Gardens next year. What I will be giving up is an enhanced chance to chop-and-lie on an opposing bowl. The less a bowl swings the easier it is to come to rest against a target bowl. This is not giving away too much because on a fast surface a draw-drive game is the better play of the percentages.

On 11-13 second grass rinks I will stick with my Aeros because a less biased bowl on a slower surface quite regularly helps one gain shot by resting on an opposition bowl whenever it is just behind the jack.