Walk along behind the rinks at your local club. More likely
than not most of the mats being played from are set within two feet of the T
line. In almost every one of those matches one team is losing (ties excepted).
In quite a few, one team is losing by more than three shots. Why haven’t these skips started looking for a
change that can turn their fortunes around? Yes, you can change the length
without moving the mat but remember that when you are losing, you may not get
that many chances to control the mat. Why not introduce two changes in one end?
If you can turn it around you won’t be able to tell which change worked for you
or whether it was the combination but we aren’t running a clinical trial here.
You are just trying everything to give yourself a chance to win.
If a team loses badly and the skip has not taken every
opportunity to alter the conditions of play by changing length and moving the
mat, the loss should be charged to the skip. It is my opinion that when a skip
falls behind by three or more shots, (s)he should make some change when the mat
is regained.
What do you think?
Recently, in a club bowling tournament, the lead from the opposing team actually complained angrily when I move the mat in the opening end. I exclaimed that I move mats because it upsets the opposition! We got off to a great initial lead and won the match.
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