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

Fall 2020 Willowdale LBC

 

Introduction

Lawn bowls is a game where consistency is rewarded. It is not like the high jump in track and field where setting records is important. It is not how close one particular bowl is to the jack; it is how often your bowls end up close to the jack. Throughout most of a match, no-one should fret if an opponent builds up a big lead so long as they are beating your own close deliveries. As long as your side maintains a consistency of excellent bowling, the law of averages can be counted on to even out the difference.

When the final ends come around, however, such peace of mind is no longer warranted. To win the match the team that is behind may need to act in a way that would be inadvisable tactics any other time in the match and the team that is leading must be aware of this and take appropriate counter-measures.

The further a side is behind, the sooner these strategies need to be invoked. In a group of blog articles, I will consider these last-end situations. 

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

The situation is that you have just lost the penultimate end of your match, and you are behind. 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 considered accepting down 1 in the previous end just to get it! In fact, the team with the last bowl under nearly all circumstances has a significantly better likelihood of scoring at least +1 on the end. 

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

Strategically, whether the last end is open or closed has some importance. That is, whether the end can be killed and replayed, or whether the jack is instead re-spotted if it is driven out of bounds. It is advantageous to you, the trailing team, if killing the end is allowed. If at any point in the end, the opponents deliver a very close bowl that also widens the head, your side should assess its potential usefulness for attempting a ‘kill’.

In the final end, it becomes increasingly important to consider the situation from the perspective of the opposing side. Have they already won the previous round in the tournament? Are their points-for sufficient to keep them in contention to win the tournament? …or to be in-the-money? 

If it is a tournament you may have a better chance to overcome a lead if your opposition has not lost any preceding match. This may be contra-intuitive but when your opponents have a chance to win the entire tournament if they both win all their games and have a large shots-for total they may be even more interested in trying for a big final end themselves than defending against your bowls. You could even comment to their side, in a friendly way, “Yu-know, if you get a multiple in this end you will have a stab at winning the entire tournament.” This gives you in turn a greater chance to score a multiple. Your best chance to score big occurs when they try for a big end! On the other hand, a team that has already lost once in a tournament will be more interested in just defeating you, even if only narrowly. Such a team is more likely to try to match bowls with your side in a last end, blocking a big end for anyone. 

Your opponent(s) must deliver the first bowl of the end and you will get to see that result before you deliver your first bowl. You are unlikely to score more than a single unless your opponents at some point make some sort of mistake. It is your job to apply enough pressure to increase that likelihood. Fortunately, It is much easier to apply pressure in the last end, even while trailing, than at any other time in the match! To illustrate with an example, during most of a match having two of your bowls in the same catching position a meter behind the jack would not much worry an opponent (trailing the jack is a low probability event), but in the last end, the possibility of such a successful low-percentage shot will oppress opponents’ minds. It is not the unlikeliness of your success that dominates their thinking but the clear visualization of its possibility! When an opponent can visualize his own dramatic loss, that opponent will feel pressure.

 

If the opposing side’s first bowl finishes short of the jack, they increase the pressure on themselves. This is a very encouraging outcome for your side. It is even more encouraging if that bowl also finishes blocking their line on that side of the rink. Your opponent can now easily visualize a second bowl of theirs hitting that first one so that both end up short. Thus do such short bowls increase the pressure for that next delivery. “Should I change hands?” is the thought bedeviling their minds. 

When your opponent’s first bowl is short, your side’s first bowl must be behind the jack, even if that means it finishes between 1 and 2 meters behind. Any bowl behind the jack will increase the pressure. Responding with a short bowl will relieve it. When down, all of your bowls need to be up! None of your bowls should be short! Your best chance for a big, winning end occurs when your side’s bowls are all behind the jack and some of the opposition bowls fall short.

No matter where the opponent’s opening bowl finishes you must anticipate that your bowls will need to be grouped together somewhere behind the jack if you are to score a multiple. 

You do not need to protect against the opposition scoring a big end; if they score at all you lose the match. An advantageous head development is one where they group their bowls to one side of the jack and yours are on the other. Then, towards whichever side the jack gets diverted, that side benefits.  If luck favors your side, you could easily score enough to win the match. If not— well, you were heading towards a loss anyway!

The situation you trying to realize is for the other side to have no more than one bowl close in the head when you go to the mat for your last bowl. Then you will at least have the opportunity to remove that single bowl and stay for your multiple.