At one of the places where I am visiting in Portugal, one of
the bowlers uses, very effectively, a delivery technique which I had never seen
before, at any level of lawn bowling, from the club level to the world
championships; neither indoor nor outdoor. He starts standing, feet together,
one stride behind the mat. Then, in one motion, he steps forward onto the mat,
sets his foot on the mat and as he takes a second step forward with the normal
advancing foot he releases his bowl. As he releases his bowl one of his feet is
either fully or partially on or over the mat.
I was curious why I had never seen this done before. On
further investigating I found the reason. Every such delivery is a foot fault!
The pertinent law of the sport of bowls reads:
7.1 Before
delivery a player must be standing on the mat with all or at least part of one
foot on the mat.[my bold italics] At the moment they deliver the jack
or a bowl, the player must have all or at least part of one foot on or above
the mat.
Now what should I do? This gentleman has been bowling this
way for years. I presume no one has ever called him for a foot fault all this
time. He has probably never played in an officiated tournament. Should I speak
to him about it off the green?
What would you do?
Interesting delivery.. much more akin to alley bowling. Is he effective?
ReplyDeleteI don't see any upside of talking to him given he's not likely to be a serious (ie tournament) bowler. I somehow doubt it'd be well received - or likely to change behavior.
January 2019
ReplyDeleteYou were right Bill.