Lawn Bowls Rules:When a Bowl Falls

I know Laws of the Sport of Bowls Crystal Mark Third Edition pretty well, but a situation occurred in a club roll-up the other night when I wasn’t so sure.

I got it right on the rink but I rushed home afterwards, got a beer from the fridge, and started thumbing through my reprint of the rules. Here is the situation:

 the end is finished; the vices go to measure but before they can do anything one of the earliest bowls delivered, which is close to the jack, falls. It becomes the closest bowl although it appears that an opposition bowl probably would have been shot if this first bowl had not fallen.

I advised that the now fallen bowl, which was now closest to the jack, was shot.

I knew that the rules stated that any member of either team could have placed a support against the tilting bowl before measuring began, but no one had done so. I knew that a skip could request that everyone wait 30 seconds after the final bowl of the end to see whether a bowl would fall before wedging it. However these rules clearly did not apply in this case.

My subsequent research shows that the relevant rule is 23.6.3

“[I]f a bowl falls of its own accord, it must be left in its new position while deciding the number of shots scored continues, and all the shots agreed before the bowl fell will count;”

Since no shots had been agreed before the bowl fell, my interpretation is that the head is counted with the fallen bowl in its new position.

Interestingly, since we won the game by one point, this decision eventually determined the winner on the night.