Lawn Bowls Strategy of Continuously Changing Jack Length

In lawn bowling, the most common strategy in singles play is to hang on to the mat and keep bowling the same winning length until your opponent recovers the mat. 

The presumed basis for this strategy is that your most advantageous length is the one that won the previous end. However, this may not be true. Particularly, if your weight is controlled by your rhythm speed, your advantage may be maximized by changing the jack length continuously, from end to end, since only you have the opportunity to set your rhythm speed by using the same delivery as you have just used delivering the jack. Your opponent, in contrast, will need to first estimate your jack  length and then base bowl velocity on that.

Remember: maintaining the same jack length when you win an end assumes that your advantage at that length will persist even after your opponent gets experience at that length. Your opponent may improve faster than you. If the length is always changing, you will have the advantage of delivering the jack to guide his weight. 

Taking the Mat or Giving It Away: A Lawn Bowling Summary

The Greenbowler has written more than one blog article about this strategic decision. I have swayed one way and then another. Now after several years of experience, I want to draw some cumulative conclusions.

Intra-Club Social Bowling

When bowling with teams randomly drawn for fun, give the mat away. The reasons are that

(i)                the opposition is very unlikely to move the mat

(ii)              moving the mat causes your lead, who is usually an inexperienced bowler, to get nervous

(iii)            moving the mat can cause real anger outbursts from the opposition

(iv)            many older bowlers think it is against the rules to move the mat for the first end (it isn’t)

(v)              your lead may be able to learn something from the track of the opening bowl

(vi)            there is an advantage to having the last bowl

Competitive Bowling

When bowling in competition with teammates, with whom you have practiced, take the mat. The reasons are that

(i)                your team has already decided and practiced this so it won’t create nervousness for your side

(ii)              if it is the opposition’s home green, they will be most familiar with bowling with the mat on the T so you will want to move it

(iii)            in the first end it is not recommended that the skip play heavy shots so the advantage of the last bowl is reduced

(iv)            your lead will have the chance to deliver both jack and bowl with the same ’rhythm speed’ thereby increasing the chance to be right on the jack

(v)              your lead can choose his/her natural length

(vi)            moving up the mat can seriously annoy some opponents causing loss of concentration

(vii)          once the mat is centered up the rink, your lead can place a chalk mark on the centerline at the center front edge of the mat so the same position can be quickly reproduced in later ends (where the centerline is not already marked)

(viii)        if your lead is differently handed from the opposing lead, he/she can bowl from the edge of the mat so that the opponent cannot follow this opening rack

Post Script

In a competition, if you want to play your second-best triples player as your lead, let the opposition play first. You do not have to reveal the order of your team members until after the opposing lead delivers that bowl!