Head Reading at Lawn Bowls Using Motifs

The labelled boxes enclosed by the dashed lines are the motifs

Here is a lawn bowls head to illustrate the motif method of analysis. The mat is situated at the bottom of the diagram. The bowls with crosses belong to the opposition. The plain bowls are yours. Your skip has the last bowl left to play. The little yellow circle is, of course, the jack. You are down one in the head.

The motif analysis is illustrated in the diagram above.

A.   A jack high wing bowl can sometimes improve probable outcomes of a draw from the same side; however, in this case it is disfavored because of the risk that you might touch the standing bowl in Motif C. Even a slight touch on the opposition’s C bowl will roll it closer to the jack. Of course this will not put you further down. It is already shot bowl.

B.   A double takeout motif often presents a pocket for an overweight draw that can push two bowls and allow the delivered bowl to slide through to the jack. The difficulty here is that one of this pair is a standing bowl that will roll closer to the jack rather than being knocked out!

C.   A standing bowl is the opposing shot bowl. As already discussed any touch on it, directly or indirectly, will not take it away from the jack but closer.

D.   Another double takeout possibility. The risk of removing your own second shot to put your side down a multiple rules out a heavier shot of this kind.

E.  Your side has the backest bowl. Any backward movement of the jack can favor your side.

F.   This is the plant motif. Here, it is very favorable for the white side. If the crossed bowl in F is hit either directly or indirectly, your side’s bowl touching it will be propelled towards the jack. If it moves just a bit it will become shot. If it moves more and moves the jack back in the space between your 'backest bowl' (E) and your wing bowl (A), you will gain a multiple. A draw aiming to run through the crossed bowl in Motif F with a couple of feet of weight is the highest percentage shot. If you hit the crossed bowl in F, no matter what weight, your own bowl in the motif will move towards the jack. If your delivery is a bit narrow you can still rattle through between the opposing bowls on this right side of the green while still jolting your bowl in the F motif. If you are a bit wide you may end up with a rest on your 'backest bowl' (E), again making shot. If you are wide and a tad short you could just draw shot!

Soon to Decamp for Portugal

James Gardens LBC Toronto in Seasonal Colours

For the third winter in a row, my wife and I will fly out of Canada New Years Eve to spend the first three months of 2018 in the Portugal’s Algarve region. There we can avoid ice and snow while continuing to bowl outdoors.

Even though our location in Vilamoura is not as convenient for bowls after the Vilamoura Lawn Bowling Club closed in October 2016, we still play at Valverde LBC in Almancil, where we have very kindly been accepted as members. We also discovered last year that there are 4 bowls rinks at the Balaia Golf Resort, close to Quarteira, that are open to play for visitors. We will also give them a try this coming year since this facility is open on Tuesdays when Valverde is closed for green maintenance.

Apparently there is another close bowls green at the Praia da Oura resort in Quarteira. I have never been there. Some on-line posts seem to suggest it is quite run down. Others suggest that it is only open in the winter. Pictures show a location close to the ocean so it may be quite windy. The surface is carpet.

I have described already the many reasons lawn bowlers might prefer to go to the Algarve for the winter months. 

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The 'Standing Bowl' Motif

 

The bowl at the left is a 'Standing Bowl'

A ‘standing bowl’ is a lawn bowl that continues to stay upright on its running surface after it has come to rest. A standing bowl is significant because it can be much more easily moved further along its path if struck by a later bowl. A much harder hit is required to roll over a bowl that has already fallen over. For example, it is much easier to promote a short 'standing bowl' than the kind that have fallen down at the end of its travel. Consequently, such a bowl, which is superficially quite short, can be promoted to being a shot bowl.

 Also, according to Mr. Tupper who writes an interesting lawn bowls blog, “A ‘standing bowl’ which is in contact with another bowl will bounce to the jack with little or no effort and does not depend upon using the same delivery line as it was delivered. Actually, a reverse delivery wick, coming from the opposite hand to wick to the jack; will cause a double point. It and the bowl used for the wick.  Yes both will go to the jack with equal speed. (Draw about 4 feet through) for this wick raise.”

Incidentally, a disproportionately large number of standing bowls is a sign of a slow green. A bowl is held up by longer grass blades because the bowl sinks into the carpet. A fast green is more like a bare surface with no protruding grass blades to support an upright bowl.

Head Reading at Lawn Bowls: The Jack-High Wing Bowl Motif

I am proposing the term 'motif' to identify any common, significant feature in a lawn bowls head. Enumerating the motifs displayed in any lawn bowls head along with an understanding of their significance for the selection of your tactics for that head will be my approach to lawn bowling head analysis.

 Before I can analyze a head in this way, I must identify and discuss more motifs.

A very common motif is the ‘jack-high wing bowl motif.’ This consists in the jack and a bowl, approximately jack-high, separated from it by 2-3 feet. When this motif is present in a head it should suggest as one possibility a potential draw shot, targeting the jack, delivered from the same side as the jack-high bowl. The chance for a successful outcome in this configuration is more than for a draw to a bare jack, because the delivered bowl will sometimes wick off the inside of the jack-high bowl and end up rolling close to the jack. Because in this circumstance an overly heavy delivery is buffered and corrected by its encounter with the jack-high bowl, the demands on the delivery are more forgiving and a fortunate outcome is more likely. Any overweight gets expended pushing the original jack-high bowl further from the jack.

Of course, the positions of other bowls in the head may increase or decrease the likelihood of success using this archetype. Any head will comprise quite a few different motifs, each suggesting a different shot. The skip’s job is now to choose the best option from among the suggestions.  

Head Reading at lawn Bowls: ‘Chop/Tap and Lie’ Motif

A motif is defined as a main element, idea, feature, etc. The main cultural areas where the word is used are art, literature, and music. I am going to extend the term to identify any common, significant feature in a lawn bowls head. Enumerating the motifs displayed in any lawn bowls head along with an understanding of their significance for the selection of your tactics for that head will be my approach to lawn bowling head analysis.

Below, I identify what I call the ‘Chop/Tap and Lie’ Motif. For other motif blogs, search the word motif in this blog’s search tool.

A head position may suggest the ‘shot or bowl’ situation but be further complicated by having the jack ‘covered’ by another bowl in front of it. That is to say, the full target cross-section is not available because the jack is obscured by another shorter bowl.  In this situation the remaining possibility may be the ‘chop and lie’ or ‘tap and lie’ tactic. This delivery is less promising than the ‘shot or bowl’ precisely because the target is smaller. Nevertheless, it may be the only option available when the head is seriously obstructed.

A necessary precondition must be that, so long as your bowl succeeds in coming to rest on the target bowl, it will be the closest one to the jack. This usually means that the target bowl must be behind the jack.

Head Reading at Bowls: The Re-Spot Position Motif

Usually the more counting bowls your side has in the head, the wider the target that these bowls make. Also, the shorter the distance between jack and mat the more likely your opposition is to attack the head with weight. Heavy weight increases the likelihood that the jack will be driven out of bounds. In the 'old' tradition, such dead ends were completely replayed but increasingly in play today  the end continues with the jack placed in the appropriate re-spot position.  The most common re-spot position for club play is located on the center line two meters from the front ditch. 

When the head position  strongly suggests that your  opponent may drive and succeed in breaking up the head, you have two main choices:

(1) try to position a short blocking bowl or 
(2) deliver a back bowl close to the re-spot position. 

If your side is sitting with more than two shot bowls, the blocker has the best chance if you need to save them all. Otherwise, drawing for cover to the re-spot position is easier and more likely to effect the outcome. This latter tactic has the added advantage that you are unlikely to accidentally disrupt the head yourself.

Thinking about covering should be triggered whenever your side has two close shot bowls.