Bowls Tactics: When You are Ahead in the Last End and Don't have the Mat

 

Introduction

Lawn bowls is a game where consistency is rewarded. It is not how close a single delivery is to the jack; it is how often your bowls finish close to the jack. Throughout most of a match no-one should fret if an opponent builds up a big lead beating your own close deliveries. So long as your side maintains consistently bowls well, the law of averages should be trusted to even out the difference.

When the final ends come around, however, such faith is no longer warranted. To win the match the team that is behind must act in ways that might be imprudent any other time in the match and the team that is leading must be aware of this and take appropriate counter-measures.

The more shots a side is behind, the sooner these more daring tactics need to be invoked.

You are Ahead in the Last End and Don’t Have the Mat

If the situation is that you have just lost the penultimate end of your match; but, you are still ahead; well, there is a bright side- you will have the last bowl in this, the last end! This is a very palpable advantage. So much so that you might have accepting down 1 in the previous end just to get it! The team with the last bowl has the better opportunity to score. 

The opposition has the mat and has the privilege of determining both mat location and jack length; however, very few skips make good use of these choices. Most likely they will go with either whatever length they just scored with or the longest jack possible. These are the commonest choices although not necessarily the smartest.

Strategically, it is significant whether the last end is open or closed. That is— whether the end can be killed and replayed, or the jack must instead be re-spotted if it is driven out of bounds. It is advantageous to the trailing team if killing the end is allowed. If your side at any point delivers a very close bowl that also widens the head, your opponents will be assessing the possible benefit from attempting a ‘kill’.

It is also strategically important whether the tournament rules require a tied game to be settled in some fashion- such as playing an extra end. If an extra end is specified, then a further consideration is what determines who gets the last bowl?

Finally, of course, it is of very considerable importance how many shots you are leading by?! To be leading even by a single shot when your side also has the last bowl is a considerable advantage. No matter how badly the end develops you will have that final chance to turn it around. The other side can do nothing about your last bowl. There is no rejoinder. Even if things continue to go badly if you can hold them to a single shot, you will be tied and if ties must be broken you will still have a chance to win!

If your side is ahead by three or more bowls, you or your skip will probably call for you to match bowls with your opposite number so long as your opponent’s bowl is behind the jack. Preferably, your bowl will still finish shot. The other side will be trying to group their bowls behind the jack and then trail the jack towards this grouping. Your side will want to place bowls in among their grouping positioned preferably so your bowl is are also closest to the jack to catch any trailed jack and to apply maximum pressure. 

Although it is always preferable to end up behind the jack, your side does not need to share this same level of fear as your opponents must. Perhaps almost as important is getting your bowls close to the center line. Then even if slightly short a bowl will reduce the chance for the opposition to hit the jack and, if within the rules, ’kill’ the end.

Because your side has the last bowl it does not have to protect in advance against the most common trick for the other side to get a big last end. That trick is to bowl everything long and then with their last bowl try to push the jack into the ditch. So long as you are comfortable bowling long with your last bowl, you are not in danger. If they fail to hit the jack you will earn a big score!

In the final end, it becomes of enhanced importance to consider the situation from the perspective of the opposing side. Have they already won the previous rounds in the tournament? Are their points-for sufficient to keep them in contention to win a prize? If the answers are yes to both these questions, they may take bigger risks to make up the score and thereby present you with the chance to be handed a big end yourselves.

When your side is ahead it is the other side that needs to be daring. You do not need to strain for more points- there is a good chance you will be handed them!

Since you have last bowl, the best situation your opponents can aim for is to be sitting match-in-hand when you come to make your final delivery.  This will put pressure on you. Your goal is to be positioned so that you can refuse your last bowl. 

Happy New Year 2021 but still No Portugal

 

Tomorrow, it is our custom to fly out of Canada to take up residence for three months in the Algarve, Portugal. There we can spend more time outside in the sunshine and lawn bowl multiple times during the week. Although Covid-19 is a serious threat in the north of Portugal, closer to Porto, our friends in the Algarve tell us that life remains remarkably normal there. Nevertheless, this year because of the lockdown in Toronto we are not prepared to travel yet. We think it is prudent to wait to see what kind of balloon in the rate of sickness may arise from the Christmas and New Year celebrations. Neither of us wants to become a burden on any health care system or to appear to be examples of poor citizenship. We will reevaluate the public health situation at the end of January. If it is sufficiently improved we will move our sojourn up to from February until the end of April.

Bowls must triumph in the end! 

In the meantime Happy 2021 New Year everybody. 

Playing or Not Playing your Last Bowl at Lawn Bowls

Last Bowl in the End

When your side has the last bowl there may be more risk playing into the head than potential benefit. The Laws of Bowls permit you to forgo that delivery and count the end as it stands.

However, at least when playing on outdoor greens which may not be perfectly flat, You should always use that last unnecessary bowl to explore some unused part of the green.

The most frequent situation will be when you have only knowledge of one side of the rink. For example, early in a match, you may have only bowled forehand. Given last bowl in a head you do not wish to change and where the best option incurs substantial risk to your advantage, you should experiment to learn the draw on the unfamiliar backhand side. Since you most definitely don’t want to disturb the head, you should bowl long if the end is a short one and vice versa.

Another possible way to use your extra bowl, is to target one edge of the rink. This will give you advanced knowledge of the amount of grass to take when the jack is displaced towards that boundary later in the contest. At the same time you will not be putting the present head situation in danger.

Last Bowl for your Side

When you have the penultimate bowl, you may still not want to risk disturbing the head even though you know your opposition skip will have one more try to change the outcome. Whether you need to bowl into the head depends upon how many other possible counting bowls you have. If your side has only a single bowl protecting against a large score by the opposition usually the best choice is to try to deliver another counter. This should be balanced by assessing how exposed your best bowl is to attack.

If after all these consideration, you still feel that you should not risk interfering with the head you can choose to:

Bowl to a respot position if you are playing ‘no dead ends’.

Place the ‘backest bowl’ on the side of the rink where a displaced jack is most likely to go.

On a slow green, place a 14 meter blocker  to protect against a draw or run through shot if only one side of the rink remains playable (one cannot place a 14 meter blocker on a fast green because the blocker would be on another rink)

On a fast green, place a blocker 2-3 meters short of the head on the centre line to protect against a drive (on a slow green it is difficult to protect against both forehand and backhand drives because both paths will entail curvature) 

In the situation where you do not wish to disturb the head but you need your last bowl to be ‘in the count’ you need to be increasingly aware that your bowl must finish behind the head but not be narrow.

In 2020 How Would I Describe My Bowls Delivery?

I bowl from the Shooters’ stance. My anchor foot is positioned at an angle of 45 degrees to the line of delivery. I have chosen this because it provides less side-to-side tilting during my stepping when I am on one foot only. For the set-up, I use the South African foot positioning which places the stepping foot one-half a stride in front of the anchor foot. This reduces the length of the forward stride and reduces the time that I'm standing on one leg. I hope this increases my stability. In my set position, I have my non-bowling hand resting on the knee of my forward leg. This keeps my center of gravity lower than it would otherwise be in a completely erect posture; again trying to minimize sway. My hand on my knee locks in the stability. My weight is essentially completely on my anchor foot so that my forward stepping will be less encumbered.

My wrist is no longer cocked. I abandoned this experiment because it was inconsistent with having a more relaxed arm. The biggest change from previous years is that I now hold my bowl tilted, even in the ready position so that no  Bryant twist is required during the backswing. This follows the observed practice of Stuart Andersen (search Stuart Andersen in this blog). The natural position of my hand, when it hangs loosely at my side, is not with fingers parallel to my aim line but slightly turned in. Previously, when I was using a Bryant twist in my backswing I felt the bowl’s changing center of gravity as I twisted my wrist was throwing off the smooth line of my backswing. Starting with the wrist off-center as Andersen does eliminates this perception. Bringing my wrist back into line, so the bowl’s running surface coincides with the aim line, occurs in the forward swing and I do not feel it.

My grip for a draw or running (run-through) shot is best described as having the “C” formed by my thumb and index finger on the bowl’s grip marks. (Since I use Aero Zig-Zag Grooved bowls, there is an actual channel for my thumb and finger.) My middle fingertip is centered on the running surface of my bowl. In contrast, for a drive, all four of my fingers are on the bowl with my index finger on one grip and my baby finger on the other.  My two middle fingers are near the center of the running surface. Putting all four fingers behind the bowl seems to improve my power while preserving accuracy.

Following David Bryant’s teaching, holding the bowl in a proper grip and standing in my proper set position, I look back and forth alternating between my stare point, over which I must roll my bowl to get the proper bias swing, and the jack location, whose distance I need to internalize to get the proper weight. At the same time, I make a few abbreviated practice swings along the proposed line, and then when I feel comfortable I begin my backswing.

My backswing is slow and measured; like an archer drawing his bow or a pool player lining up his cue. My mind is focused on keeping my backswing on top of the extension of my aim line out behind me. My eyes stare at the ‘stare point’ on my aim line which I want my bowl to traverse. As the bowl passes the lowest point on my backswing, my stepping foot starts forward. My stepping foot points (the centerline between heel and toes) along the aim line and comes down parallel and close to the aim line. The continuation of my backswing and my forward stepping somewhat offset each other in terms of weight transfer but I sense some net transfer of weight backward on my anchor foot at this point. As my forward-stepping foot gets planted on the ground my forward swing begins accompanied by a smooth transfer of my body weight forward onto my forward leg. My body dips slightly to bring my bowl closer to the ground. I release my bowl just in front of my forward foot. During the forward stepping and forward swinging, my mind is blank—in order to commit complete control to my subconscious. Once the bowl is released, I consciously observe whether I have rolled the bowl over my stare point so that I will know whether I need to correct my line or simply do a better job of hitting it!

It is important, I think, to be sure that one completely transfers one’s body weight forward onto one’s stepping foot. This is achieved by taking an actual step off the mat.  I have so far failed to consistently follow this, so it is a work in progress. I am also trying to vigorously draw my fingers and thumb off the bowl as I release it so that there is no last-minute deflection from the line; but, this so far is just a hoped-for outcome. Since I am trying to leave the forward swing to my subconscious it is difficult to consciously control the bowl’s release.